Human Error Is A Hacker's Dream

Uploaded on 2023-02-07 in TECHNOLOGY--Hackers, FREE TO VIEW

With targeted and increasingly sophisticated phishing scams continually on the rise, the ever-evolving world of digital communication presents the optimal backdrop from which fraudsters can readily strike.

The Different Forms Of Phishing

Employees may be able to spot the more obvious phishing emails as they tend to have a couple of common themes; they either look completely innocuous or they tap into fear, for example “your bank account has been hacked”. Hackers will often tailor emails to topics relevant at the time and they will certainly tailor it to seen relevant to an organisation. A seemingly urgent email from someone imitating a senior member of staff is relatively simple to execute as this information is online for all to view.

People often expect to only be exposed to phishing through scam emails, leading them to wrongly assume the legitimacy of phone calls and divulge information. In a recent global report by Mutare, over 47% of businesses reported that they had experienced some form of voice phishing, or vishing, in the last 12 months.

Vishing occurs when someone phones you with the intent of deceiving you into sharing personal data with them. As a method of phishing, it came before email but has been making a resurgence in recent years. Large organisations are often targeted and should be extra cautious in terms of employee training and have complete clarity on which information employees are allowed to pass on over the phone.

Multifactor Authentication (MFA) fatigue attacks is a strategy used to get around multi-factor authentication and usually take the form of fake emails repeatedly requesting access information from someone. This can lead to the recipient eventually getting so frustrated they either turn it off or hand over security codes.

MFA fatigue attacks are relatively new, sophisticated methods, however in reality they make up only a small percentage of attacks. Phishing emails are still the most common threat, and, in these instances, it is a numbers game; the hacker will send hundreds or thousands of phishing emails to an organisation looking for that one click, playing the odds and hoping they can get past the barriers for at least one individual.

Human Behaviour - A Vital Piece Of The Puzzle

Human behaviour plays a vital role in ensuring organisations and people stay safe and protected from the threat of phishing. In the phishing space, human behaviour is critical. Ensuring everyone in your organisation has had regular training so they know the signs to look out for, as well as having a level of consciousness about their own data security are key.

You can also subscribe to various threat intelligence services which keep records of all the current known ‘scams’ so you can set up systems to weed them out and filter before they even get through to inboxes. However, keep in mind that you can’t filter everything.

Andrew Parsons is UK partner and cyber security expert at international law firm Womble Bond Dickinson

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