With phishing becoming more commonplace and sophisticated, finding a phishing solution just as sophisticated is your first line of defense.
Take this as an example: In July 2020, Bill Gates’s account shared a tweet announcing that he would give back to the community by doubling donations made to a specific Bitcoin address. Shortly after, the social media accounts of public figures like Joe Biden and Kim Kardashian posted similar tweets.
Those who fell victim to the phishing scam didn’t see their investment doubled. The tweets were shared by a hacker who managed to steal more than $100,000 in Bitcoin after tricking Twitter employees into sharing support credentials to gain access to these prominent accounts.
This scheme is one of the many examples of advanced scams that hackers are devising to steal valuable credentials.
How widespread is phishing?
Phishing is a prevalent type of internet crime that caused $54 million in losses in 2020. Many criminals turn to phishing because it’s a fairly effortless method for casting a wide net and targeting several potential victims. It only takes a handful of recipients to fall for the scam for the effort to be profitable.
It’s a type of fraud that’s as old as the internet. However, perpetrators have been developing more sophisticated schemes involving personal information to create highly targeted spear-phishing attacks or AI to craft realistic spoofed emails.
Some are even using advanced social engineering techniques to impersonate a superior the victim would recognize and trust.
How do criminals target businesses?
Even though anyone can be a victim, employees who have access to information that can be monetized are often targeted by phishing scams.
A scammer can email an HR employee and deceive them into sharing W2s. In fact, with 4.8 million cases of identity theft and fraud in 2020, there is a strong likelihood that employee or customer data are targets.
Some criminals will reach out to the accounts payable department. They usually have a scheme conveying a sense of urgency to trick employees into sharing credentials or payment information by claiming an invoice is overdue. This type of scam is invoice fraud. It has cost businesses a hefty sum of $12.5 billion over the past five years.
In some cases, the goal is to get users to follow a malicious link or open an attached file. These actions will infect the device and sometimes the entire network with malware.
Phishing is a common way to deliver ransomware, a type of malware that locks businesses out of their data until they pay a ransom to regain access. Experts believe that ransomware attacks will cost over $256 billion in the next 10 years, which makes ransomware a major phishing threat.
What is the most effective phishing solution?
Business email compromise (BEC) fraud has increased by 400% over the past five years, which means that employees are encountering more fraudulent emails than ever. Mitigating fraud risk means taking a multifaceted approach.
Training and Awareness
Three billion phishing emails are sent every day. While mailbox filters can catch some of them, recipients need to be aware of this growing threat. They should also realize that offenders have more advanced strategies like spear-phishing and AI-generated emails that look extremely convincing.
Penetration tests where you send a fake phishing email across your organization can increase awareness and condition users to look for a few red flags.
Best practices
Review your best practices to find ways to secure the data criminals could monetize. For instance, controls and workflows can require involving more than one employee to process accounts payables, making you less vulnerable to invoice fraud.
Antivirus
Antivirus software is a valid ransomware solution since it can scan links and attached files to prevent infections.
Email AI
While users can spot fraudulent emails by double-checking the sender’s email address, well-crafted spoofed emails and convincing schemes can fool even the most careful recipients.
Fraud.net’s Email AI is a powerful security tool and phishing solution that analyzes millions of data points and detects discrepancies the human eye would overlook. Users will see a risk score for each email and instantly know which ones they must be wary of and which they shouldn’t even open.
With Email AI, work email productivity can increase by more than 15%. Users don’t have to spend time carefully analyzing different elements to determine whether they’ve received a legitimate request. This solution greatly mitigates risks, especially for departments where recipients are busy and more likely to make mistakes.
How Fraud.net can help protect you from phishing
Fraud.net is a fraud prevention company with the experience and expertise to fight BEC and phishing:
- Email AI. Mitigate risks with our free Email AI phishing solution, a downloadable tool from Microsoft’s AppSource marketplace that is compatible with Outlook 365 for up to 100 team members. Once you complete the initial setup process it only requires a few minutes, no further maintenance is needed. Users will see a risk score displayed in real-time next to each email they receive. This risk score is calculated using millions of data points that paint a comprehensive picture of who the sender is.
- Collective Intelligence Network. Don’t let career criminals target your organization. Our Email AI can draw on data from this network to identify known scammers who have targeted other businesses.
Email AI is a powerful line of defense against the growing threat that fraud represents.
Get in touch with us for a free demo of our phishing solution if you’re ready to take action!