Protecting yourself against phishing attacks used to be relatively easy. Don’t download unexpected attachments. Visit banking websites directly instead of clicking on links in an email. And look for bad grammar.
Those days are gone. Today, a phishing attack can come from any direction via any channel.
Consider the case of “Anna,” an employee of a bank’s treasury department. She was expecting a baby and was in the process of decorating a nursery. She got an email from the producers of a design show who wanted to talk to her in person about her preparation for the baby, and the challenge of being a working woman. The interview went well … but not for her.”
“We were actually able to go in and conduct the interview, and get access to her computer system, and compromise the treasury accounts,” says J.J. Thompson. “And we got her to click on the link we wanted her to click on, which we used to download a payload to her computer,” he adds.