Employees Are Top Targets of Phishing Emails

October 09, 2012

Covert Arrivals: Targeted Attacks via Employee Inboxes Download the infographic: Covert Arrivals: Targeted Attacks via Employee Inboxes

In a world where fast Internet connection is a must for a company, responding to emails from across continents, cities, or cubicles is an easy thing. Unfortunately, this is not only great for real-time office interaction, but also perfect for attackers who have picked spear phishing as their favorite point of attack.

Spear phishing emails usually come posing as legitimate and basic messages employees see day after day. If sent to tired or unknowing recipients who give in to their lure, these messages can easily be the bearers of sophisticated malware designed to lay in stealth while eventually siphoning off sensitive company information.

Notably, most work emails sent daily revolve around sensitive compensation issues, merger and acquisition activities, potential layoffs and reorganizations, product road maps, and budget plans. Attackers can simply draft a message in any of these common contexts and easily gain the attention of its recipient.

It’s also common for malware in spear phishing emails to exploit a vulnerability, drop a file, download a file, or communicate with a remote server—any which way, it can then start to gather information about a company and scour the network for available information for sabotage, espionage, or monetary purposes.

See how email threats work for targeted attack campaigns on this infographic.


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Covert Arrivals: Targeted Attacks via Employee Inboxes

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Posted in Cyber Attacks, Infographics, Targeted Attacks

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