Phishing Prevention with MFA

What are Common Types of Phishing Attacks?

Historically, phishing was often conducted by sending mass email campaigns designed to collect credentials. The logic is that if a hacker can reach enough people with a phishing campaign, statistically someone will take the bait. Today's phishing techniques are much more targeted, often incorporating social engineering campaigns in which attackers gather information about their targets through meticulous research and manipulative interactions.

Email Phishing

Email phishing is conducted by sending mass email campaigns imitating a legitimate source to steal sensitive information from a broad group of people. The goal is to trick the recipient into giving away sensitive data or install malware on their system.

Spear Phishing

Spear phishing uses social engineering to collect personal information about a specific individual, such as a target organization’s employee. Attackers use this data to pose as legitimate users, then infiltrate networks and steal sensitive data, install malware, or steal credentials.

Whaling

Whaling is a type of spear phishing attack that targets high-level executives. Attackers often use personalized emails to trick targets into providing sensitive data or making financial transactions. Whaling is concerning because executives have social leverage and direct access to valuable data and highly visible companies.

Cybersecurity professional reading a document at his home office about phishing

How Does Spear Phishing Work?

Most modern phishing attacks start with threat actors gathering information about their targets to gain initial unauthorized access into an organization’s networks, and then escalate privileges as they traverse the networks.

Step 1: Social Engineering
A spear phishing attack begins when an attacker establishes communication with their target. This could happen via phone call or email — there are any number of avenues hackers use to reach out to targets in a way that appears legitimate.
Step 2: Targeted Phishing
Once an employee has bought into a phishing scam, they’ll typically be taken to a web page where they’ll be asked to provide their credentials.
Step 3: Lateral Movement
Once the hacker has infiltrated an application, they can use an organization’s internal systems to gain access to additional resources and take over more user accounts — often with privileged access to critical systems.

Phishing for Dummies

Phishing attacks are evolving and so should your defenses. This ebook teaches about new emerging threats, trends affecting attackers, and weaknesses that leave organizations vulnerable. It provides strategies to mitigate these weaknesses, emphasizing the importance of understanding phishing, and introduces Cisco Security solutions for sophisticated defense.

Download the eBook

What Are Anti-Phishing Tools?

A Multi-Layered Approach

Anti-phishing solutions utilize both security software and human practices to prevent and remediate phishing attacks.

Phishing Protection Solutions

You need software that provides advanced phishing protection, strong user authentication, granular device visibility, adaptive access policies, and login monitoring.

Employee Awareness

Employees are attackers’ favorite target, which also makes them your first line of defense. Educating them on how to recognize and avoid suspicious emails or links can help prevent phishing attacks.

How to Prevent Phishing Attacks

Because it targets the unpredictable human element of security, phishing sounds scary — but it doesn’t have to be. With a few best practices and security tools in place, organizations can achieve phishing resistance, prevent unauthorized access, and avoid becoming a victim of phishing attacks.

Implement Strong User Authentication

To significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized data access, require multi-factor authentication (MFA). But not all authentication methods are equal. Using WebAuthn or FIDO2 security keys provides the highest level of assurance for secure access. Additionally, Verified Duo Push provides an extra layer of security by requiring users input a unique code from the login device in the Duo Mobile app.