While most phishing attacks are sent by way of email or deceptive websites, cyber criminals can take many other approaches. The following are just some tactics attackers use to steal your data and sensitive information.
Deceptive phishing:
Deceptive phishing is the most common form of phishing. Under this type of scam, the attacker impersonates real companies in an attempt to steal your personal information or login credentials. Links in these phishing emails redirect users to a fraudulent website that has a nearly identical URL to its legitimate counterpart. Only a few characters will be out of order, making the phony links difficult to identify.
Malware-based phishing:
In order to steal your information, attackers will introduce malware—software designed to damage or disable computers—to a victim’s PC. This is usually accomplished through email attachments or downloadable files from a website. In fact, email is commonly cited as the number one way hackers deliver malware to a user’s computer. This strategy is often targeted at small and medium-sized businesses, as they frequently have lax cyber security measures and perform sporadic system updates. Using these methods, hackers can introduce various malware into a network, including:
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- Ransomware—Ransomware is an increasingly popular style of malware. Using ransomware attacks, a victim’s data is encrypted until a steep fee is paid. While dollar amounts may vary, some ransomware attacks can cost six figures or more.
- Keyloggers and screenloggers—Two common varieties of malware are keyloggers and screenloggers. In simple terms, these forms of malware track keyboard strokes of victims and relay the information back to the phisher. Advanced versions of these kinds of malware run automatically in the background and launch whenever a browser is opened.
Session hijacking:
In plain terms, computer sessions are temporary interactions users have with websites. For instance, from the time you log in to an account (e.g., Facebook, Twitter or an online bank) until you log out is considered a session. Session hijacking occurs when malicious software “hijacks” a user-initiated session. Phishers execute these attacks using local malware on a user’s computer. Once deployed, session hijacking can be used to monitor all forms of online activity.
Cyber Assessments:
With the increased usage of technology in people’s lives to stay connected while mostly working from home, cybersecurity threats have also become a growing issue and require proper assessments to manage any security gaps and risks that can harm your business.
Therefore, it’s important to conduct proper cyber assessments to mitigate the possibility of having your company’s cybersecurity system breached.
