Phishing attacks have been around for a long time in IT.  Designed to steal your credentials or trick you into installing malicious software, they have persisted in the IT world precisely because they have been so devastatingly simple and effective.  Today, a more modern and more effective version of the same attack is commonly used.
A typical phishing attack involves an attacker sending out a malicious email to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of users.  The attacker's email is designed to look like it comes from a bank, financial service, or even the tax office. Often aiming to trick you into logging in to a fake online service, a phishing attack captures the login details you enter so an attacker may use them to enter the genuine service later.
By sending out tens of thousands of emails at a time, attackers can guarantee that even if only one half of one percent of people fall for it, there is a lot of profit to be made by draining accounts.  Spear phishing is a more modern, more sophisticated, and far more dangerous form of the attack.  It's typically targeted at businesses and their staff.

A Convincing, Dangerous Attack
While a traditional phishing attack throws out a broad net in the hope of capturing as many credentials as possible, spear phishing is targeted and precise.  The attack is aimed towards convincing a single business, department, or individual that a fraudulent email or website is genuine.
The attacker focuses on building a relationship and establishing trust with the target.  By building trust and convincing the target that they are who they are pretending to be, the user is more likely to open attachments, follow links, or provide sensitive details.
Consider how many times you have followed a link or opened an attachment just because it has come from a contact you have trusted before.

A Trusted E-mail
The malicious email can appear to come from a vendor you deal with regularly.  It may even look like an invoice you are expecting to receive.  Often attackers can simply substitute the vendors' banking details for their own, hoping the target will not notice the difference.
Such an attack is very difficult to detect.  It takes a keen eye, strong working knowledge, and constant awareness to keep your company protected.  Even a single small mistake by an unaware member of staff can compromise your business accounts.

Defending Your Business
The key to stopping a spear phishing attack is education.  Learning attack techniques, and how to protect against them is the single biggest thing you can do to enhance business security.
Whenever you deal with a vendor in a business transaction, you should always consider important questions before proceeding.  Are you expecting this email?  Is the vendor attempting to rush you into a quick decision or transaction?  Have you checked all the details are correct and as you expected?  Sometimes a simple query to the vendor can protect you against worst-case scenarios.
In many cases, a phishing attack can be halted in its tracks with a strong IT security package.  Web filtering prevents malicious emails and links from entering the network, shutting attacks down before any damage can be done.

Good Security Practice
As with many types of IT threat, good security practices help mitigate damage.  Locking down security to ensure employees only access the systems they need helps to prevent damage spreading across the network. Enforcing unique and strong passwords prevents leaked credentials from affecting systems related to the one that has been compromised.  Getting employees set up with a password manager and good security policies can do the world of good to boost your security to the level it needs to be. 

Many users have reported recent scam messages from individuals claiming to have intercepted their username and password.  These messages often state they have been watching your screen activity and webcam while you have been unaware.
Typically, attackers threaten to broadcast footage to your contacts, colleagues, or social media channels.  Demanding payment in Bitcoin, malicious hackers blackmail their victims to keep confidential information private.

Where Have the Attacks Come From?
In many cases where hackers have claimed to have a victims' password, this has turned out to be true. 
In the last few years alone, many large websites have suffered enormous hacks which have released confidential details on many of their users.  LinkedIn, Yahoo, and Myspace all suffered massive and devastating hacks.  Some users of these services are still feeling the consequences today.
The details leaked from these sites, and others facing the same issues, are sold online for years after the initial breach.  Hackers buy username and password combinations in the hopes of reusing them to access services, steal money, or blackmail their owners.

How to Respond
If you have been contacted by one of these hackers, it is a scary reality that they could have access to your credentials, data, and online services. The only thing you can do in response to this type of email is to ignore it. This “we recorded you” email is a scam made much more believable because they probably do have one of your real passwords gained from a site hack. That said, accounts that share the same password should be changed immediately.  Security on additional services you use should be updated too.

Self Defense On the Web
When using online services, a unique password for every site is your number one defense.  A good password manager makes this practical and straightforward too. Using a different password for each site you use means that hackers can only gain access to one site at a time.  A hack in one place should never compromise your other accounts by revealing the single password you use everywhere. Often, people think that maintaining many passwords is hard work or even impossible to do.  In truth, it's almost always easier to keep tabs with a password manager than it is to use the system you have in place today.

A high quality and secure password manager such as Dashlane, or 1Password, can keep track of all your logins efficiently and securely.  They often offer the chance to improve your security by generating random and strong passwords that hackers will have a tougher time cracking.
Password management services offer a host of features that help you log in, remind you to refresh your security, and make your safety a number one priority. After using a manager for just a short time, you can be forgiven for wondering how you managed without it.
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If you think you might have been hacked already, or want to prevent it from ever happening, give us a call to at 715-255-0325 update your security.