Whether it’s curiosity, time pressure or fear – psychological tricks play a major role in cyber attacks and unfortunately all too often lead to success. In this blog article, you can read about the 3 most common phishing tricks as well as key strategies and various technological solutions for phishing defense.
Phishing is Becoming Increasingly Efficient
Phishing aims to deceive people into revealing sensitive information or downloading malware onto their systems. The attackers usually send fake emails that lure victims to manipulated websites or contain malicious attachments. These attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and difficult to detect, especially on mobile devices where the display of links is limited. Cybercriminals have also expanded their attack vectors: In addition to emails, they are increasingly using SMS, social media platforms and even fake calls, where voices are deceptively imitated through the use of AI.
Their Psychological Tricks: How Cyber Criminals Manipulate People
The most common methods include:
- Curiosity: Who isn’t curious when it says: “Car in underground parking garage has been damaged”. Such vague subject lines tempt people to click on links or open photos in order to obtain more information.
- Urgency: The pulse is sure to race when emails arrive with time-limited offers or urgent instructions (“Need today!”). They put the target person under pressure to act quickly before critically scrutinizing the message.
- Fear: If threats are then also used as a mechanism, e.g. that account blocking or legal consequences will follow without an immediate response, the emails panic the recipients and may lead to hasty, ill-considered action.
Companies should sensitize and train their employees to these tactics and implement suitable technological protection measures. But what exactly does an appropriate protection concept look like? And how can it be implemented?
The 3 Pillars of Successful Phishing Protection
To protect themselves effectively against phishing attacks, companies should focus on three central strategies:
1. Training Employees - Including Heads & CEOs
The first and most important step is to train employees. They must learn to recognize the psychological tricks of the attackers as well as indications of phishing and react appropriately. One-off training is not enough – regular refresher courses are necessary, as the attackers’ methods are constantly evolving. With the help of phishing simulations, companies can test how well their employees are prepared for such attacks and raise awareness.
2. Use of Modern Security Technologies
Technology plays a crucial role in protecting against phishing by reducing the number of instances where employees need to be alert and recognize phishing attacks. This means that many attacks can be intercepted in advance. Solutions such as mobile threat defense solutions, virus scanners and securing external access through multi-factor authentication and VPNs help with this prevention and protection. However, it is important to note that they can never offer 100% protection. Therefore, a combination of awareness and technology is always necessary.
3. Response Plan in the Event of an Emergency
Even companies with the best-trained employees and effective technologies cannot be completely protected against phishing attacks. It is therefore essential to have a clear emergency plan in place in order to react quickly and efficiently in the event of an acute threat. Such a plan should define guidelines and procedures so that everyone knows who takes which steps to minimize the damage. Regular monitoring of data traffic helps to identify intruders at an early stage, and offline backups of the most important data enable rapid recovery.
Technological Solutions in Detail
In the following, we would like to introduce you to some tools that companies can use to strengthen their security precautions:
1. Phishing Awareness Tools
These simulate phishing attacks and analyze how employees react. Anyone who clicks on a fake link is informed that it was a simulation and receives information on how the attack could have been detected. This method addresses the “human” risk factor: it raises the awareness of the workforce and improves their ability to recognize phishing attacks. Detailed reports afterwards allow companies to better assess their risk of cyberattacks and plan appropriate training.
2. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Conditional Access
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an effective method against phishing attacks on login data. Security is increased by requiring several factors to verify a user. For example, it is possible to request a one-time password in addition to the user password, which is sent by SMS to a separate smartphone. Thanks to the Trusted Platform Module chip, modern solutions even allow MFA without such a second device.
In order not to lose sight of usability despite all security precautions, companies should consider the topic of “conditional access”. This helps them to always adapt the required login method to the respective context. If a context is defined as secure, a simple login may be possible, e.g. via single sign-on. If a user is in an insecure context, authentication should take place via MFA or access should even be denied.
3. Mobile Threat Defense (MTD)
MTD solutions have been around for many years. But thanks to AI, modern MTD tools are even able to detect anomalies in user behavior. They can detect if a person enters a password from a different location or at a different time – and can increase the complexity of the login procedure (keyword MFA) or deny access in suspected cases.
4. Ransomware Blockers
If attackers have installed malicious software despite all protective measures, special security solutions can detect and stop the unlawful encryption of data in real time. They identify and isolate compromised user accounts, stop further data encryption and help to restore the data. This reduces downtime to a minimum. The permanent monitoring of file shares and cloud drives and their deviations also makes it easier to analyze the incident afterwards.
Conclusion: Comprehensive protection is necessary
Phishing attacks are not only increasing in frequency, they are also becoming increasingly difficult to detect. In the past, phishing emails could often be identified by spelling mistakes, unprofessional layout or incorrect context – those days are over. Today, the messages are so professionally designed and equipped with psychological tricks that even experienced users can fall into the trap. And this is true for the masses – because Phaas providers (Phishing-as-a-Service) help criminals to succeed with their services.
Companies must therefore take comprehensive measures to protect themselves. Training, modern security solutions and emergency plans are the basis of an effective protection concept. However, we know from discussions with companies that there is usually a lack of time, personnel and in-depth knowledge. IT security is not one-dimensional, but consists of dozens of small building blocks that interlock to provide a certain level of security. You have to know these building blocks and always stay on the ball because the attack situation is so complex and dynamic.
With the support of an IT service provider, you can ensure that you use the right tools and use them efficiently, while neither the usability for your employees suffers nor the administrative burden for your IT team increases. We help you to take the pressure off your IT team and keep your finger on the pulse. We are not only familiar with the latest technologies, but also contribute our experience from a wide range of customer projects. So you benefit in many ways.
Contact Us
Arrange a non-binding consultation to find out how you can benefit from our IT security expertise and our customer project experience.
A further Article about IT-Security
Cybersecurity is an issue that no longer only affects IT specialists, but all of us. But what does this mean in concrete terms for companies and how can they protect themselves? Read Now
