What is Phishing?
Phishing Explained
Phishing scams are commonplace today, but that wasn’t always the case. The earliest phishing cases transpired more than 20 years ago. In the beginning, fake emails were pretty easy to detect. Starting in the ‘90s, phishing attackers targeted the AOL users (History of AOL). As the use of the internet and email grew in popularity, the number of phishing scams increased. Phishing attacks progressed into sending automated campaigns to people to steal their credentials. As time went on, hackers started making the subject of their emails more engaging. Then, hackers starting sending emails from familiar contact names or companies.
Phishers send out thousands of emails at a time. Some of the recipients fall for the fake message. In contrast, spear phishing emphasizes a high rate of return over a small set of victims. Going after information, spear phishers invest their time in researching their targets then use that information to customize their attack emails. If they can successfully phish someone with authority, they can gain access to valuable data.
The versions of the emails are different, but basically the principal idea is to send a legitimate looking email to a recipient to invoke a particular action, like clicking a link or opening an attachment.
To keep your company protected, your employees must be thoroughly trained in security awareness. Today’s hackers often use phishing techniques that threaten your company’s security. Simply training your staff to recognize a phishing email and deal with it appropriately can add an important layer of protection, possibly saving your business or organization thousands of dollars.
Sometimes they are extremely sophisticated, filled with personal information that leads an employee to believe they are real or they are written in an urgent tone demanding a response. PhishingBox educates your employees on the dangers of phishing emails. With phishing simulations, you can send customized emails to your employees so they are trained to treat suspicious emails in a safe way.
PhishingBox assesses a company’s risk exposure to phishing attacks and tests employees’ ability to spot and report suspicious emails.