What is SMS and Smartphone Chat Phishing?

The rise of mobile messaging services - Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp in particular - has provided phishers with a new method of attack. Attackers don't even need to use email or instant messaging applications to achieve their end goal of distributing malware or stealing credentials. The internet-connected nature of modern communications makes text messages an effective attack vector as well.

SMS - or smishing - phishing attacks work much the same way as email attacks. They present the victim with a fraudulent offer or a false warning to induce them to click on a malicious URL.

The nature of SMS makes the phishing message short and designed to grab the attention of the victim, often with the goal of getting them to click on the phishing URL. A common attack by smashers is to impersonate a bank and fraudulently warn the victim that their account has been closed or that they have withdrawn money.

The truncated nature of the message often does not provide the victim with enough information to analyze whether the message is fraudulent, especially when the text messages do not contain telltale signs such as the address of the sender.

Once the victim clicks on the link, the attack works the same as a normal phishing attack, with the victim tricked into giving their information and credentials to the attacker.

What is "Cryptocurrency Phishing"?

As the popularity - and value - of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Monero and others has grown, attackers want their piece of the pie. Some hackers use cryptojacking malware, which quietly harnesses the power of a compromised machine to mine cryptocurrencies.

However, unless the attacker has a large network of PCs, servers, or Internet of Things (IoT) devices at their disposal, making money through this type of campaign can be a daunting task that involves months of waiting. Another option for hackers is to use phishing to steal virtual currencies directly from their legitimate owners' wallets.

In a prominent example of cryptocurrency phishing, a criminal group ran a campaign that copied the look of the MyEtherWallet website from the Ethereum wallet and encouraged users to enter their login details and private key.

Once this information was gathered, an automatic script would automatically create the funds transfer by pressing the buttons just like a legitimate user would, but during this time the activity remained hidden from the user until it was too late. Cryptocurrency theft in phishing campaigns like this costs victims millions of dollars.

How Can I Spot a Phishing Attack?

Deception is at the heart of phishing attacks, regardless of the particular technology or target. While many people in the IT security industry might frown at the lack of sophistication of some phishing campaigns, it's easy to forget that there are billions of internet users - and every day there are. people who are accessing the internet for the first time. Large sections of Internet users are therefore not even aware of the potential threat of phishing and even less of the fact that they could be the target of attackers. Why would they suspect that the message in their inbox isn't actually from the organization or the friend they claim to represent?

But while some phishing campaigns are sophisticated and specially designed that the message appears completely genuine, there are key clues that can make it obvious that an attempted attack is spotted.

Phishing Signs: Poor Spelling and Grammar

Many phishing operators still make basic mistakes in their messages, especially with spelling and grammar.

Official messages from any large organization are unlikely to contain spelling or grammatical errors, and certainly not repeatedly throughout the body of the message. A poorly written message should serve as an immediate warning that the communication might not be legitimate. It's common for attackers to use a service like Google Translate to translate text from their own native language, but despite the popularity of these services, they still struggle to make messages appear natural.

How to Spot a Phishing Link?

It is very common for phishing e-mail messages to trick the victim into clicking on a link to a malicious or bogus website designed for malicious purposes. Many phishing attacks contain what looks like an official-looking URL. However, it's worth taking a careful second look.

In some cases, it may just be a shortened URL, with attackers hoping that the victim will not verify the link and will just click. In other cases, attackers take a minor variant of a legitimate web address and hope the user won't notice.

Ultimately, if you're suspicious of a URL in an email, hover over it to examine the homepage address, and if it looks wrong, don't click on it. And check that this is the correct URL and not a very similar but slightly different URL than you would usually expect.

Ideally, a phishing email should never reach your inbox at all. So, when protecting business infrastructure, they should be weeded out at the level of the corporate mail server. For this, there are special software systems. For example, our Protegent360 Complete Security for Mail Server solution uses cloud-based technologies to block malicious attachments and phishing links.