Phishing

This is the most prevalent method used in today’s interconnected world. There are several different types of phishing techniques used today but the most popular are simple emails containing an attachment or a link. The purpose of the email is to entice you to open the attachment or click on the link resulting in malware infecting your computer. Hopefully the phishing email will be identified either automatically (by email spam filters etc) or by eagle eyed users!

Also you need to ensure your operating system patches and antivirus are up to date which will further help prevent any exploitation and catch any malware attempting to infect your computer.

Remember if in doubt, don’t open the attachment or click any embedded link!

Additional information…

A criminal fraud trail took place at Blackfriars Crown Court in London, UK in late 2018. In order to commit the fraud, the defendants sent many phishing emails purporting to be invoices to the account departments of many large businesses worldwide. Naturally attempts were made by some of the accounts staff to open the attached invoices which were actually executable files that contained malware. The malware not only stole their business email and related credentials, it also encrypted the host and any networked computers causing business disruption. This disruption enabled those perpetrating the crime to resend false invoices and redirect customer payments to fraudulent bank accounts. This type of malware is referred to as a “Pony” and this type of criminal activity is referred to as a “Payment Diversion Fraud”.