Hook, Line and Sinker: How to Spot Different Types of Phishing Attacks

According to a recent survey, almost 40% of small businesses in the UK report being the victims of cyber attacks each year. Of these cyber attacks, more than 80% are phishing scams.

You should do whatever it takes to prevent phishing scams from negatively impacting your company. This will start with you learning about the different types of phishing attacks that exist.

You should also teach your employees about phishing scams and make sure they’re ready to stop a phishing attack from taking place. It’ll make your entire company safer when it comes to cyber attacks.

Here are some of the most common types of phishing attacks and what you can do to spot them.

Spear Phishing

Of all the types of phishing attacks on this list, this one is probably the simplest and most straightforward. But it’s also one of the phishing scams that people tend to fall victim to most often without thinking twice about it.

During a spear phishing attack, one or more of your employees will receive an email that will ask them to either download a file or click on a link. When they do, they’ll invite malware onto their computer and into your system. It can then wreak havoc on your company as a whole.

You should train your employees on how to spot spear phishing attempts. These types of phishing scams can strike quickly if those within your company aren’t careful.

The National Cyber Security Centre recently warned UK businesses of spear phishing attacks originating from Russia and Iran. They should be on your company’s radar.

Email Phishing

Email phishing is a lot like spear phishing in that it will involve your employees receiving emails with files to download or links to click. The big difference between these two types of phishing attacks is that email phishing will involve mass emails going out and hitting more of your employees’ inboxes.

The good news is that there is anti-phishing technology that can be used to stop email phishing attempts. But one of these attempts might slip past this technology every so often and cause complications.

Just like with spear phishing, you should train your employees on how to spot email phishing attempts. You should also tell them to always think twice before downloading a file or clicking on a link from someone they might not know.

Clone Phishing

Clone phishing is one of the scariest types of phishing attacks because it isn’t always easy to identify a phishing attack when it’s used. It involves an attacker using an existing email to try to phish those who work for your company.

The problem with this type of phishing attack is that it’s going to look very convincing. The emails that your employees receive during a clone phishing attack might look just like the emails they would normally get. It can make it difficult for you to train your employees not to open them.

You can, however, stop clone phishing attacks from taking a toll on your company by investing in anti-phishing software that can spot them. This software should help your employees make good decisions about opening up emails and clicking on links in them even when they appear to be from trusted sources.

Credential Phishing

If a prompt popped up on your employees’ screens asking them to input their login credentials, what would they do? Ideally, they would report this to your company’s IT team to make sure it’s legit.

But unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. It’s why some companies will fall for credential phishing attacks.

These attacks take place when those who work for a company start inputting their login credentials into prompts that aren’t legit. It can lead to a company’s internal system being exposed and confidential data falling into the wrong hands.

You should ask your employees to please report any unexpected prompts on their various devices that ask for their login credentials. It might help stop these credentials from getting stolen by attackers.

Smishing

Email phishing scams have become so common over the years that many of them have stopped working. It’s forced those who try to pull these types of phishing scams to get a little more creative.

Some of them have responded by taking part in what is called “smishing.” It’s just like email phishing except that it involves trying to get people to click links through text messages.

If your company provides cell phones to your employees that are utilized for work purposes, you should talk to them about smishing and advise them not to click on links in any text messages from unknown senders.

Image Phishing

In an effort to deceive those who might be too smart to fall for other types of phishing scams, some attackers have started to participate in image phishing. This type of phishing involves sending images that people can click on through emails as opposed to links.

Many people have been taught not to click on links, but they haven’t always been advised not to click on images. Some will even accidentally click on these images in an email without thinking twice.

You should discuss image phishing with your employees and ask them to send any potential image phishing attempts to your IT team.

Pop-Up Phishing

Most companies have put pop-up blockers into place to stop pop-ups from appearing on their employees’ computer screens. But it isn’t impossible for those who launch pop-up phishing attacks to get around these blockers.

You should talk to your employees about not clicking on any pop-ups that might appear on the screens of their devices. If they do, it could expose your company to malware.

Avoid These Types of Phishing Attacks at All Costs

There are so many types of phishing attacks that take place these days. It can be difficult for your company to keep up with all of them.

But you should make an effort to teach your employees how to stop phishing attacks in their tracks. You should also invest in the latest anti-phishing technology to ensure that you’re able to eliminate as many phishing attacks as you can automatically.

SYTECH can provide you with many of the cyber services you’ll need to keep your company safe. Contact us today to get more information on them.