5 Types of Phishing Emails You Should Be Worried About

Phishing is a phenomenon where hackers deliver fraudulent emails to loads of people with malicious links and attachments, in endurance that a few of them will react to them.

What’s the Goal of Phishing You Ask?

The goal is considerably scary. Here the victims are manipulated for willingly handing over their sensitive information (Ids, PIN codes, passwords, etc.) into the hands of crooks and scammers.

This fraudulent activity is carried out in various ways. In some cases, the scammers trick the email recipients into clicking on a malicious link. In other cases, they manipulate them to download attachments for dropping malware and viruses onto their systems. In any of the mentioned ways significant waves are created in the organization, bringing the corporate and personal information at high risk.

The phishers generally construct some legitimate-looking emails that are disguised as authentic ones from valid sources. The Scammers either use the names of general sites with which people do business with (Amazon, DHL, etc.), or they use your bank’s name, etc.

Behold some standard ploys which the cybercriminals use in general.

1.  The Friend Tactic

If an anonymous character claims to know you in an unexpected email, tries to be extra friendly with you, Don’t Panic!

You are absolutely not suffering from amnesia.

It’s just another way to trick you into sending him/her money. You may also receive an email from a known friend’s Id. The email might say that your friend is in trouble and is in urgent need of money. What you need to do is, before sending money verify by making a call to your friend. It may be the case that your friend’s email Id is hacked or compromised.

2.  The Billing Issue

These days a lot of us order stuff online, and to our luck the hackers have managed to invade this field as well. In this scenario it is possible that you may receive an email from your bank’s name that your online payment got declined. The email might contain a link that can lead you to a malicious landing page and you end up handling over your PINs and passwords without a blink of an eye.

To be on the secure side do verify the authenticity of the email before providing the sensitive information. For this, you can make a call to your banking officer.

3.  The Expiration Phenomenon

You might receive an email that your credit card is about to expire and you need to update your credentials for renewal. For that you are invited to click onto a malicious link which takes you to a spoofed site, and the rest is all that you know.

4.  The Virus Game

A panic is created by informing you that your machine is infected with a dangerous virus. To get over this situation you are invited to download an antivirus software from the received email. Such emails are usually attachment based and end up dropping viruses onto your systems or hacking them completely.

5.  The Tax Game

We know that everyone is liable to pay taxes, that’s why this tactic is considered a famous phishing attempt. The email may be regarding the tax refund and may ask you for your account details.

Conclusion:

Discussed are the common hacks that phishers use in routine. To train yourself for recognizing such emails, better use a sophisticated cybersecurity awareness software, like PhishRod.

Better Stay Vigilant and Alert.

5 COMMON TIPS TO IDENTIFY PHISHING EMAILS

A phishing email is the most common way that is used by hackers and scammers to get hold of a person’s or an organization’s most sensitive and personal information. They do this via sending you emails containing links leading to malware, attachments that can drop viruses on your computers, etc.

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4 Common Phishing Attacks

In this tech-centric era where technology is blooming with every hour that passes by and every second that ticks, phishing scams are also making their place to play a critical role in giving a tough time to the organizations. But, the question arises: Continue reading 4 Common Phishing Attacks

PhishRod has signed up with Redington Gulf to be its authorised distributor across Middle East and North Africa region.

PhishRod has signed up with Redington Gulf to be its authorised distributor across Middle East and North Africa region. The partnership is aimed to leverage the strong footprint and experience of Redington Gulf in value distribution coupled with solutions from PhishRod for phishing readiness, security awareness and advisory management, said the company.

Continue reading PhishRod has signed up with Redington Gulf to be its authorised distributor across Middle East and North Africa region.

Patch the weakest link or WannaCry : Option is ours

The eve of 12th May left the security gurus perplexed once again as the massive ransomware attack shook the world across the globe. The LinkedIn feed started with the news of NHS being impacted in England and over the next few hours ultimately all forums were flooded with news of “WannaCry” leaving the organizations cry for their critical data across the globe.  According to BBC, ransomware encrypted data on at least 75,000 computers in 99 countries on Friday. Continue reading Patch the weakest link or WannaCry : Option is ours

Ingredients for Designing a Successful Security Awareness Campaign

Security Awareness across the enterprise has always been a debatable issue. There would hardly be any CISO/CIO who would deny the role of security awareness, yet awareness gets the least eyes and attention of the security executives. Some blame the lack of resources, others say it is the responsibility of HR department, a few claim it has no benefit and that they simply have no time for it while majority is too busy in procuring and installing technology solutions. Continue reading Ingredients for Designing a Successful Security Awareness Campaign

Threat Protection Begins with Human Driven Firewall

The organizations continue to reap the benefits of internet but at the same time remain vulnerable. Every day we hear incidents related to security breaches, financial loss and tarnished corporate reputation through sophisticated malwares, highly organized spear phishing attacks and insider threats. “According to AV-Test Institute 390,000 new malicious programs are registered with them every day”. This goes on to show that the malwares are increasing at a rapid pace, beating the advancements in technology that are meant to stop them.

If we look back a decade and a half, the only few known security technologies to an organization were either an antivirus or a firewall. The journey started, then came, endpoint protection, email gateways, web gateways, identity & access, data loss prevention, encryption, SIEM & sandboxing and so many more. Half of these technologies have seen a re-launch with some added features and a word “Next Generation” to it and we still remain vulnerable.

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Phishing Scams and Security Behavior Management

Times are gone when a simple Antivirus & firewall combination would be enough to safeguard an organization from virus attacks. The journey from Antivirus to End Point security is quite an interesting one. On the way we found evolution of complex technologies such as IPS, Email Gateways, Web Gateways, Security Information & Event Management, DLP, Identity & Access and God knows how many other technologies. All of them had a same objective to keep the organization secure from the cyber-attacks. While technologists were occupied in developing the latest technology controls, hackers were busy targeting the most vulnerable assets in the organization i.e. Humans.

The easiest technique of targeting humans to steal confidential information is Phishing, which refers to a hacker’s attempt to get personal financial details from employees who are regular internet surfers. Vishing is another form of cyber-attack much like phishing; it is orchestrated through cell phone text messages. Employees are sent text messages supposedly from their employers requesting for personal information. The most recent form of employee attack is whaling; whaling is a form of phishing that is targeted at top executives and people of high net worth. These individuals are tricked into divulging sensitive information through real looking fake emails that are supposedly from people or organizations of importance.

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Panama papers; Why data leaks will continue to happen?

The release of sensitive information to the public by individuals who are sometimes called whistleblowers and dubbed traitor or hero, is termed to be a data leak.

The most notable data leaks in the world include those facilitated by Wikileaks that showed the inner workings of US diplomacy, while the NSA files leak revealed that the NSA extensively tapped into the communication systems of American citizens and made use of court orders to coarse network providers to turn in the call, messaging and browsing data of its users.

Now, the Panama Papers is another notable leak in world history. A collection of 11.5 million files leaked from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The Panama Papers reveals the task evading practices of the rich, who create offshore companies in tax havens around the world.

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