Stay Ahead of Phishing: Key Trends and Tactics You Need to Know

Read Time:4 Minute, 33 Second

Phishing is a continually advancing threat where attackers are developing new and better ways to trick people and evade controls. To fence oneself off, one should know the trends occurring in the world of phishing and try to respond to them. Here in this guide, we will get an overview of the current phishing techniques and how to protect ourselves from them.

1. Targeted Spear Phishing Attacks Are Increasing

Spear phishing is a more focused form of phishing that targets specific individuals or organizations. Instead of sending out generic phishing emails to a large group, attackers craft personalized messages using information about their targets, such as job roles, interests, or recent activities. These targeted attacks are more convincing and have a higher success rate because they appear legitimate. Using tools like an Office 365 spam filter can help detect and block these tailored attacks by analyzing email content for suspicious patterns and behaviors.

2. Rise of Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Business Email Compromise refers to the subcategory of phishing in which attackers mimic the identity of top managers, employees, or other officials and deceive their counterparts into releasing funds or divulging information. This trend is particularly dangerous because it usually comes in the form of an alert from what looks like a legitimate source such as a spoofed email or a hacked account. Attackers may escalate to the use of forceful language that coerces the recipients into responding hastily and therefore should be followed up with a call, message, or email. Application of MFA together with raising awareness on the part of the employees on what is considered a BEC indicator also lowers the threat level.

3. Increasing Use of Social Engineering Techniques

Crooks seems to be working on improving the ways and means of the social engineering procedures. The most famous and often used social engineering techniques which are fear, urgency, or curiosity are used to push the behavior, for example, clicking the link or downloading the attachment. Messages may carry warnings of such account suspensions, unauthorized transactions, or another string message to create an impression that an urgent response is necessary. It is possible to avoid falling for such scams and anyone receiving such an email should take some time to find out the truth about the message.

4. Phishing Through Multiple Communication Channels

Despite the conceptual knowledge that phishing threats are invading the email platform, individuals must note that these hackers are extending the attack pathway to other various platforms, including the texting platform (smishing), social media (smishing), and even the voice call platform (vishing). For instance, there was in recent past a message that was alleged to have been from the bank asking you to confirm the details of the account. As you interact through the various communication channels, you should remain as guarded as you are when reaching out to people you don’t know face to face, and you should not respond to messages or emails that/ contain personal details without first confirming the identity of the sender.

5. Use of HTTPS in Phishing URLs

Cybercriminals are now using HTTPS in their phishing links and websites to keep people from suspecting anything wrong. Many users are conditioned to only visit sites with HTTPS, as they think the “secure” mark means the site is safe. However common web protocol HTTPS ensures that the data is encrypted during the transfer, it does not guarantee the authenticity of the site. Be very careful if you are typing some personal data, always check the URL and pay attention to such things as close lettering or numbers added to the address.

6. AI-Powered Phishing Tactics

Nowadays, Cyber criminals are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its outcomes to make their phishing emails look far more authentic. That was alluring to me for it can imitate writing styles, create plausible content, and run massive phishing scams. When the emails used in phishing attacks are better crafted, standard security solutions may not be very effective. He noted that it is important for people to obtain profound email filtering technologies based on the principles of machine learning to identify the precursors of phishing.

7. Phishing Attacks During Major Events and Crises

Scammers tend to build upon major events, incidents, or specific times of the year making people more sensitive to their tricks. For instance, during a fiscal year-end or a taxpayer’s deadline, they might pose as a government agency, and in case of disasters, they may seek to pretend to be collecting for the disaster victims. When a user receives any kind of response mentioning current affairs, he/ she should be more cautious and ensure that the request originated from a genuine source, so as not to fall prey to such phishing scams.

Conclusion

Those types of scams remain a constant threat and a need to stay up to date on various types. A multi-layered security approach is required due to the increased reporting of spear phishing, BEC, social engineering, and attacks powered by Artificial Intelligence. To prevent falling prey to phishing, you need to install an Office 365 spam filter to eliminate unsolicited emails and educate your employees about indications of phishing, use Multi-Factor Authentication, and be cautious while communicating using Office 365 across various channels. Therefore, ensuring that you are alert and up and doing is a way of ensuring that you don’t fall prey to hackers and maintain a safe environment for your data.