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Phishing is the most common type of social engineering attack, as well as one of the most frequent attack methods on the Internet in general. It’s a simple concept: creating a fake website that impersonates a legitimate one that the target frequents and sending them a security notice that urges them to ‘click on the following link’—which then leads them to a fake website, where they’ll be prompted to log in.
Regardless of this understanding, many have of phishing attacks, human error remains the top cause of data breaches; and phishing, which exploits human psychology, continues to be one of the most devastating threats to enterprise security. Organizations need to provide regular assessments, not only to address gaps in the cybersecurity culture and to increase awareness amongst their employees but also to examine their technical infrastructure more effectively.
Red team operations cover different aspects of organizations’ security posture, so social engineering, and phishing, in particular, are always covered in their assessments. Phishing tools and simulators are often used by red teams during red team assessment, when a red team takes on the role of “attacker” to research targets and craft phishing campaigns, all to test the organization’s readiness for attack and susceptibility to phishing.
Recently, we went over the perfect red team tools for your security toolkit, and we mentioned phishing tools in the weaponization phase of the red team operation’s attack approach. Today we’ll go deeper, delving into different types of red teaming and their tools for dealing with phishing: simulators, reverse proxies, frameworks, scripts, and more.
Phishing is a type of social engineering attack often used to steal user data, including login credentials and credit card numbers. It occurs when an attacker, masquerading as a trusted entity, dupes a victim into opening an email, instant message, or text message. The recipient is then tricked into clicking a malicious link, which can lead to the installation of malware, the freezing of the system as part of a ransomware attack, or the revealing of sensitive information.
An attack can have devastating results. For individuals, this includes unauthorized purchases, the stealing of funds, or identify theft.
Moreover, phishing is often used to gain a foothold in corporate or governmental networks as a part of a larger attack, such as an advanced persistent threat (APT) event. In this latter scenario, employees are compromised in order to bypass security perimeters, distribute malware inside a closed environment, or gain privileged access to secured data.
An organization succumbing to such an attack typically sustains severe financial losses in addition to declining market share, reputation, and consumer trust. Depending on the scope, a phishing attempt might escalate into a security incident from which a business will have a difficult time recovering.