How to Defeat Modern Phishing Attacks

Modern web-based threats are rapidly evolving, becoming more sophisticated and highly evasive to security measures. There is an increase in successful web-based attacks, and one of the most common types is phishing attacks, so it pays to know how to defeat modern phishing attacks.

We are seeing a large increase in both known and unknown threats on the web, as both cybersecurity experts and malicious actors use novel and fast-evolving techniques in their dealings. Phishing attacks, however, do not play by the same rules as, say, malware; they can be far worse.

What Makes Phishing so Hard to Defend Against?

 To understand how to defeat modern phishing attacks, we must understand how the attackers think and act and what they act upon.

Phishing attacks use the human mind as their main exploit and individuals within an organization as their entry point into a company’s data. What makes phishing attacks so dangerous is that they target the one thing humans understand the least, our emotions.

Research suggests that 40 percent of today’s can only be prevented in real-time, meaning they must be detected and avoided. It is essential that any organization or individual learn how to avoid phishing schemes by spotting signs and taking precautions.

Once a phishing link, email, or image has been clicked on, you have likely lost the battle, and hope your organization has prevention and recovery protocols to avoid the worst.

Types of Phishing Schemes

• Email Phishing, although quite a broad term but does encompass most of all phishing attacks.
• Spear Phishing, email phishing targeting a specific individual after extensive research.
• Vishing, or voice phishing through phone calls. It creates a sense of urgency and catches people off guard.
• Whaling/CEO fraud, impersonation of a higher-up to pressure a lower-level employee to take an action.
• HTTPS phishing, using the trustworthy image of the S in HTTPS, which stands for hypertext transfer protocol secure, to trick people into clicking a link
• Smishing, or SMS phishing.
• Angler phishing. Like Smishing and Vishing, but through social media notifications.
• Evil Twin attack, opening a fake hotspot and making it seem safe to collect user’s login credentials.
• Clone phishing, using an email address similar to a service previously used by the victim.
• Pop-up phishing, as if popups weren’t annoying enough, some websites

How do you Prevent Phishing Attacks:

As the old adage says, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and this remains true in phishing prevention.

• Install security software on your PC and set it to update automatically. Security companies tend to keep up.
• Set your phone to update automatically. The phone brand can provide you with vital security protection.
• Use multi-factor authentication whenever possible. Some applications allow you to use biometric annoying such as fingerprints and eye and face scanners.
• Back up your data. This cannot be overstressed for individuals and companies alike. Use an external hard drive or cloud.
• Educate yourself, your employees, and your loved ones. Awareness is the best defense.

If you are reading this article because you have already messed up, then all you can do is report the scam and sender and try to recover your data. Every company or platform has its own protocol for dealing with data theft.

If you want to learn how to defeat modern phishing attacks, it’s more about building a sturdy security structure around yourself and your company that involves cautious web surfing, threat awareness, preventive measures, and a backup plan in case things go wrong.

Safe surfing.