Phishing as a Service (PaaS) has made phishing more dangerous than ever. What is Phishing as a Service and how is it a threat? More importantly, how can you keep yourself or your business protected from this threat?
What is phishing?
Phishing is an effective tactic for tricking people into providing their personal information. Usually, an attacker will send an email to the victim pretending to be from a legitimate institution such as a bank. When the victim clicks on that link and tries to access their account, their login information is stolen.
How realistic a phishing campaign is will determine its effectiveness. This used to be a big barrier because it requires a skill set that many cybercriminals lack. Phishing as a Service is altering that because it provides exactly what they need to make a phishing campaign successful.
What Is Phishing as a Service?
Phishing as a Service (PaaS) is part of a growing trend in which cybercriminals are transforming into service providers. Instead of carrying out cyberattacks on their own, they assist others in carrying out attacks in exchange for a fee.
It is based on the Software as a Service business model, in which customers pay a monthly fee for access to the software.
This provides a new revenue stream for cybercriminals and allows anyone to carry out more professional attacks.
How does Phishing as a Service work?
Vendors of Phishing as a Service promote their goods as phishing kits. They are primarily sold on the dark web, but some phishing kits are now available on the regular internet.
A phishing kit contains everything needed to carry out a successful phishing attack. They include templates for websites to direct victims to as well as email templates for delivering emails that look to be from reliable businesses. Lists of potential targets are also included in certain phishing kits.
Phishing kits frequently come with thorough instructions and customer support because they are intended for people without technological expertise.
They are also promoted as items that let anyone, regardless of skill level, generate money by conducting phishing assaults. For people who wish to engage in cybercrime but lack the essential understanding, this service is a popular option.
What happens to the stolen information?
Many things could happen after credentials have been stolen from a victim. The credentials can be used by the attacker in a number of ways. They could attempt a money transfer if it’s a financial account. Alternatively, if they have access to a network, they can utilize it to start a ransomware attack.
Credentials can also be put up for sale on the dark web. This makes it possible for someone to gain money from stolen credentials even if they have little use for them.
Some phishing kits are also built to save a copy of any credentials that are taken and send it to the company that published the phishing kit. The publisher of the phishing kit will potentially earn more money as a result. Additionally, it implies that even when credentials are stolen with malicious intent, they are frequently sold again on the dark web.
Who is the target of phishing?
Businesses and private individuals are both targets of phishing attacks. The login information for a targeted private person’s financial and personal accounts could be stolen.
Moreover, other cyberattacks may take place as a result of a successful phishing attempt against a company. Customers’ sensitive information or ransomware can be installed if an attacker steals the network’s login credentials.
How do you protect yourself from phishing?
Even if Phishing as a Service makes phishing assaults harder to spot, you can still avoid them if you know how to spot the signs.
Verify the sender
The recipient of a phishing email must pay close attention to the sender’s name. The sender may try to pass as legitimate by using email spoofing, but it is impossible to completely eliminate small spelling differences, so pay attention to this.
Look for formatting errors
Phishing as a Service products frequently come with pretty realistic emails, but they still don’t have the same level of professionalism as actual emails. Look for grammatical and formatting errors.
Don’t open attachments or click on links
Never ever click on a link in an email, regardless of who sent it. Additionally, you must never open an email attachment unless you are certain of its contents.
Take caution when requesting information
Every phishing email includes a request for action. Any email that requests information from you or requires you to log in to an account should raise red flags.
Protect yourself and your business
Phishing is a serious threat to both individuals and businesses. It leads to individual account hacking and network intrusion in businesses. Phishing as a Service also exacerbates this threat by allowing anyone, regardless of skill level, to conduct such attacks.
It is important to remember that phishing only works if someone in your organization clicks a link or otherwise provides information that allows the cybercrime to take place. People will make mistakes and fall for phishing attacks since they are only human, but with the correct email security protections, you can turn your employees into your first line of defense while also protecting your organization.
The more you and your employees understand phishing and how to spot it, the less likely it is that you will be targeted. Allow yourself and your team members time to learn about this unpleasant reality of today’s online world, and make sure the training is ongoing to keep up with constantly changing threats.
