One of the first discovered attacks was a phishing email purportedly originating from the World Health Organisation (WHO). These types of attacks are commonly known as spear phishing, i.e., targeting specific individuals or whale phishing, targeting executives/executive management/high net worth individual etc. However, over the years, it has evolved and, instead of mass spam emails being sent out to all users, criminals have started to target specific groups or individuals. At the outset, it was a social engineering activity using a shotgun approach to target a large group of users. Phishing has infamously evolved over the years. However, these ‘vishing’ attacks still exist and may be used in combination with one of the other vectors. Using phones as an attack vector is less common as it involves a degree of intricacy and it is more complex to obfuscate the attackers’ tracks. The number of targets that can be attacked at the same time is, theoretically, unlimited. They are free, exposure is nominal and they do not require technical infrastructure or knowledge. The most common forms of delivery are:Įmail and instant messaging are the most prevalent forms of attack vectors. The phishing attack vector differs depending on the target, type of attack and information targeted.

Reports suggest that a third of all data breaches root from a phishing attack and it is now the most proliferated vector of attack due to its simplicity, the high availability of tools and, that typically, it does not require specialist knowledge. The objective is to trick the recipient into freely providing sensitive data, such as passwords, username, network information etc. Phishing emails are generally crafted to imitate a legitimate business, bank or email provider, by replicating the branding, design and pattern of their communications. Phishing is a fraudulent attempt to deceive an end-user into providing confidential information.

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