How Does a Phishing Attack Work? Hooking Your Team’s Defenses

Tonight, we’ve got a fascinating read for you, straight from the data aficionados at Verizon. These guys know how to make data fun, even if they don’t know us personally. According to their latest research, ransomware is all the rage in the world of grossware, and guess what? Phishing is the prime way these sneaky attacks get their claws into unsuspecting victims. So, let’s talk about how prepared your team is for a phishing attack. Are they phishing-savvy? Are you?

In today’s digital landscape, staying educated about phishing is crucial to securing your business. Gone are the days when we fell for those classic “Bob, I’m stranded in Croatia without my phone, can you send me $250?” ploys. But now, we face sophisticated schemes, like that seemingly legit email from Amazon about your latest purchase, which could cost you more than just the item. Yikes!

So, let’s dive into some phishing basics together. We’ll unravel “how does a phishing attack work?” and discuss effective ways to prepare your team. Because today is the perfect day to level up your knowledge and protect your business.

First, How Does a Phishing Attack Work?

1. Deceptive communication: A bad person creates a fake website or an email that looks legit (e.g., from someone you trust, such as Amazon, your boss, or your car company). 
2. Persuasive lures: The email is super-persuasive and lures you into reacting, usually by following a link or opening an attachment. Many phishing emails rely on knee-jerk reactions for success. Sometimes it uses social pressure, panic, or fear, as in through whaling attacks. This often bypasses restrictions set by security protocols, as the vulnerability it takes advantage of is human error.
3. Exploiting vulnerabilities: Uh-o, you’ve clicked a malicious link in the email, and now you’ve been ransomed. Or you’ve tippy-tapped your login to a fake login page, and now the bad person has your credentials. 

Tell-Tale Signs: It’s A Phishing Email

Lots of phishing emails are super realistic, so it’s not always easy to tell, but giveaways are:

• Mismatched sender’s email address: The sender’s email address mismatches with the organization they’re supposed to be from, e.g., sadie@youvebeenhacked.hack emailing you about your DHL package.
• Sense of urgency: A sense of urgency, e.g., YOU’RE IN DANGER OF HACKING, QUICK, PRESS THIS LINK NOW TO STOP IT HAPPENING. Or something less rabid, such as “Urgent action required now.”
• Excessive exclamation points or emojis: Anyone who uses more than two exclamation points is either a phisher or in a desperate tier of marketing. Approach with caution.
• Poor spelling and grammatical errors: Indications of unprofessional communication (most companies pay someone to prevent those errors).
• Suspicious URLs: You’re offered a URL to click. If you’re feeling lucky, hover over it to check if it matches the organization the email is supposed to be from, but FOR PETE’S SAKE, DO NOT CLICK IT.
• Requests for personal information: Anyone asking for personal information such as bank account details, logins, etc. It’s always weird. No legit organization will ask you for things like that by email.

When Is A Link Not A Good Link?

A favorite tool of hackers is the spoofed link— a link to a skanky website disguised as a link to a legit website. Others will use a different URL that looks passable enough to slip by unnoticed. These domains can be tricky. 

If you want to understand “How does a phishing attack work,” it’s useful to see it in action. Let’s look at a few examples of red flags using that chunky behemoth Amazon.

If the email is genuinely from Amazon, the link should lead back to Amazon.com or accounts.amazon.com, but don’t click it first to check if it’s true because then, duh, it’s too late. Instead, observe carefully.  If there’s anything weird stuck between “Amazon” and the “.com,” then it’s suspicious. For instance, if the URL is amazon.com.mailru382.co/something, you’re being had.

Don’t forget that there should also be a forward slash (/) after the “.com.” Everyone handles their domains a little differently, but use this as a rule of thumb:

Some of these can be challenging to spot, so you and your people need a little breathing space for critical thinking and checking (and double-checking) those links.

Preparing Your People

There’s a reason so many people are searching “How does a phishing attack work?” You can stare at PowerPoints all week and learn zilch. Action learning is a thing, and phishing simulation is action learning at its most effective. Phishing simulations are cool because:

1. Practice makes perfect (almost): Your people get all the practice but none of the consequences of a real phishing attack. Just different consequences (see point 5 below).
2. Gather evidence for improvement: They give demonstrable evidence of how your people respond to phishing attacks: who delete, who reports, who clicks etc.
3. Review training efficacy: They demonstrate evidence of security risk training and reduction for your compliance requirements. Go you!
4. Find repeat offenders: Phishing simulations show you the repeat offenders at an individual level: yes, we’re looking at you, Jamie, in Accounts. 
5. Set new goals (and consequences): Provide clear training goals and consequences to your people as part of their security development: there’s nothing convoluted about a phishing simulation result. 

A Phishing Simulation: Your Key to Strengthening Security!

Why do you need it? Well, it’s your ultimate baseline to gauge your team’s preparedness (or lack thereof) against phishing attacks. By embarking on a phishing simulation, you’ll significantly reduce your exposure to the myriad security risks that phishing presents. And let’s face it, nobody wants their digital pipelines clogged with a shedful of ransomware today, right? So, why not give us a call?

Our top-notch phishing simulations will empower your team to make near-zero phishing errors, bringing us immense delight (without the smugness, we promise!). Still wondering, “How does a phishing attack work?” Our esteemed phishing expert, Braden, is eager to chat with you and guide you through the process.

Ignition is Silicon Valley’s best (and friendliest) IT security, compliance, and support team. Contact us now – chatting about IT support and cybersecurity is our favorite thing to do!