Phishing Protection: Learn from Real Phishing Tactics

Phishing protection is not simple or easy. Advanced social engineering strategies combined with AI-generated messages have made it more likely than ever that a malicious email makes it through your email security without raising alarms.

To detect these attacks, it helps to view phishing tactics from the eyes of an attacker. In this article, we will teach you how to think like a cybercriminal to gain a deeper understanding of real phishing email examples.

What Is Phishing and How Does It Work?

A phishing attack starts with a deceptive email message that appears to be trustworthy. It gives the user a reason to open it, then asks for information. A password notice. A shared file. An invoice. A delivery update. The email does not need to be clever if the timing is right. 

Most phishing tactics push the recipient toward one action. Click the link. Open the attachment. Sign in again. The link usually leads to a fake login page built to look like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or another service the user already knows. Once credentials are entered, the attacker has something useful. Mailbox access. Cloud access. A path into finance systems or internal files.

Attachments create a different problem. The user opens the file, malware runs, and now the investigation moves from the inbox to the endpoint. Process activity, persistence, command and control, and lateral movement. Different trail.

Phishing protection has to account for all of that, not just the email body. The message is the entry point. The damage often happens after the click.

Phishing Email Examples: Recent Trends

Phishing scams are exploiting online shopping habits, especially around holidays and sales events. Attackers might use the promise of a discount code or impersonate a shipping update to lure their targets into giving up personal and financial information. When recipients click on a link within the email, they are asked to enter their email login credentials and credit card information, which then end up in the hands of the attackers and can be used in account takeovers and dangerous future attacks.

Other recent phishing threats have used AI tools to rapidly acquire targets and send personalized messages. Now, phishing operators don’t always have to choose between attack quality and quantity.

Phishing Tactics: How To Write A Phishing Email

Now it’s time to get cynical and think like a phisher! To demonstrate how to craft a phishing campaign, we will look at one of the suspicious emails that Guardian Digital identified and quarantined. This message features four common tactics that we’ve seen in countless other phishing email examples. 

Compromise an email account that can be used to launch a phishing campaign.

In a phishing campaign, fraudulent emails are either sent from an account that has been compromised in a previous attack carried out using another compromised account or from a spoofed email address that the attacker creates. This one really hits close to home, as the above email came from a Berkshire Hathaway employee’s compromised local desktop Outlook account (vtaig.com is actually Berkshire Hathaway Automotive). Even the identity of the user’s Outlook email signature was kept to leverage the trust that occurs with an existing profile.

Phishing attacks sent from spoofed email addresses that contain misspelled words or additional characters can be clearly identified as fraud if you know where to check. However, malicious emails like this one often go undetected because they are sent from a legitimate email account that has been hijacked by an attacker. This particular email passed through an antispam system undetected. 

Received: from [100.112.1.169] (using TLSv1.2 with cipher
DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256 bits))
by server-3.bemta.az-b.us-east-1.aws.symcld.net id
27/82-39809-D39E3CE5; Tue, 19 May 2020 14:12:13 +0000
Received: from ptr1.vtaig.com (HELO mail.vtaig.com) (152.194.33.140)
by server-3.tower-381.messagelabs.com with ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384
encrypted SMTP; 19 May 2020 14:12:10 -0000

Identifying and blocking sophisticated phishing attempts that originate from compromised email accounts requires superior protection than traditional antispam software provides. To safeguard the inbox against these dangerous attacks, which can result in steep financial loss, significant downtime, and reputation damage, it is critical that businesses implement an advanced cloud email security solution comprised of multiple layers of detection engines and spam filtration technology. Combating phishing requires a solution that is capable of learning and updating in real-time to remain ahead of emerging exploits. 

Convince the recipient to give up credentials. 

Many phishing attacks, such as DocuSign scam emails, contain malicious links or attachments designed to either harvest victims’ credentials or download malware on a victim’s device. This particular phishing email contains a malicious PDF attachment that requires the victim to login to a fake Microsoft SharePoint account, where the attacker would then have access to the login credentials of the Berkshire Hathaway employee targeted in this attack.

It can be very difficult to discern whether an embedded link or attachment is legitimate or fraudulent, and one mistake can have devastating consequences - shaking a company to its core. To protect against email attacks involving malicious attachments or links, organizations should implement a solution that offers complete defense against all malicious links and attachments with real-time URL scanning and broad-type file analysis.

Evade spam filters with the use of nonspecific language.

Phishers typically use vague, nonspecific language in their campaigns. In this particular case, both the subject and the body text of the email are general, conveying a cold, unfriendly tone. As opposed to including details on the contract payment, the attacker simply chose to use “Doc” as the  subject. Instead of including the recipient’s name in the greeting, the phisher initiates this email with a simple “Fyi”. 

In their scams, threat actors often avoid using words such as “IRS” that are commonly picked up by spam filters in an effort to remain undetected for as long as possible. Regardless of this tricky tactic, a comprehensive, multi-layered cloud email security solution will identify and quarantine these dangerous emails, preventing the serious harm that can result from a phishing attempt reaching the inbox. 

Compromise other email accounts, which can be used to launch future attacks.

If you carefully examined the above image, you may have picked up on the fact that this email does not contain the recipient’s email address. This is related to how criminals launch their attacks. Phishers either run through the address book of the compromised email account they are sending messages from, or define a list of victims that they plan to target. In many cases, phishers will “trickle” out these email scams slowly in an effort to fly under the radar for as long as possible. 

Phishing Protection FAQ

Phishing attacks tend to follow familiar patterns. These questions focus on what security practices matter during everyday email use and what you can do if something goes wrong. 

What are the most common signs of a phishing email?

The common signs are pressure, mismatch, and an action that the sender should not be asking for over email. A strange domain, a link that does not match the brand, an unexpected invoice, a password prompt, or a request to change payment details all deserve a second look. The wording may be perfect. That does not make it safe. Real attacks often look clean now.

How can I protect myself from phishing emails?

To be safe, always check the sender, the link target, and the attachment of an email before you click anything or send a reply. Don't trust unexpected emails. You've also got to read the message and decide whether it makes sense. MFA also helps. So do patched systems and strong email filtering. But the real control is verification before action. 

What should I do if I click on a phishing email?

Report it immediately and assume the click may have exposed something. If credentials were entered, reset them from a clean device and revoke active sessions. Have IT check mailbox rules, login history, endpoint alerts, and any files that were downloaded. Do not wait for obvious damage. By the time a fake login turns into account access, the attacker may already be moving.

Final Thoughts on Phishing Protection

Phishing is a vicious cycle: successful attempts result in the compromise of other accounts, which can be used to launch future phishing attacks, compromising yet more email accounts. Breaking this cycle requires users who understand how to prevent phishing attacks and have practiced taking the time to read unusual messages. Phishing protection also depends on email security platforms that are capable of accurately detecting unusual inbox behavior and email impersonation attacks in real time. With the right training and software, businesses can slow down the perpetuation of phishing campaigns.

Want to learn more about phishing protection? We can help! Speak with a security representative today.