Malicious Multi-Vector Attacks
Cybercriminals are using multi-vector attacks to make their scams seem more legitimate.
Phishing emails and scams have been around for a while now. Many people are becoming more cautious when opening emails, text messages and answering phone calls. Cybercriminals are getting smarter because of this and are starting to deploy multiple attack vectors.
In a recent study, when cybercriminals did an email attack, they had a 17.8% open rate. When they added a phone call scam to this email attack it increased to 53.2%. The reasoning for this, is cybercriminals make themselves seem more credible and authentic when they send out a message in multiple ways. They also can make the victim think this is even more urgent since they reached out to them in a couple different ways.
Tips:
- If you receive an email or phone call make sure to remember the red flags. If there is wording that makes you panic and that you have to perform an action urgently, it is probably a scam.
- Remember that if you receive a message through a couple different vectors, it doesn’t mean that it is legitimate.
- When in doubt, VERIFY! Always check first that the request is legitimate before performing an action. Contact the person or company directly.
Learn more tips like this and train your employees with our Security Awareness Training Program.