Crime as-a-service (CaaS) is a professional criminal cyber organization that anyone can find and have access to. It allows cyber criminals and hackers to sell their knowledge, service, tools, and experience to less experienced.
You don’t have to be a developer, hacker, or geek to become a cyber-criminal, but often these organizations employ professional developers to help them out. These criminals run an actual business, and they offer subscriptions and fees to those who want to become their clients. With small fees, anyone can start phishing.
CaaS is used to create phishing attacks, which means stealing identities, personal and financial information. Most phishing messages are sent by emails; they can look like bank announcements or online stores; they convince someone else to reveal sensitive information. In addition, attackers often trick innocent people by giving paid access to their servers, so they think it’s safe. That way, the attacker can easily hide their tracks.
How to protect yourself from phishing?
By setting a spam filter inside your email, you can prevent phishing messages from being found in your inbox. However, hackers are always trying to outperform anti-spam filters, so the excellent idea included additional layers of protection. These four steps can help you further protect yourself from stealing your identity.
Protect your computer with security software. Set the software to update automatically so that it can deal with any new security threats. Protect your mobile phone by setting up automatic update software. These updates could provide you with essential protection against security threats. Finally, protect your accounts with double authentication.
Why should organizations be concerned?
CaaS has made phishing an effective method for attackers. Within a short time, and with minimal effort, they can attack random people and more prominent organizations. Without phishing, they would spend more time investigating and trying to trick security. This way, it’s quick, and a beginner would accomplish it too. They do it by hiding URL-s in attachments, text messages, malvertising, and so on.
An entry-level attacker working on his own would be easily spotted and blocked because of his lousy work. Still, if an experienced cyber-criminal transferred his experience to a beginner, he would possibly succeed in frauds from his first day. The consequences of just one phishing attack would mean a lot for one company. There are lots of financial costs organizations would have to bear. Also, that can ruin a company’s reputation, and customers would lose their trust. The brand would be damaged and scarred.
How can organizations protect themselves?
They should only post the necessary contacts and people on websites to reduce the number of potential risks. Also, it wouldn’t be great if they could not assume the protocol from the emails, protocol that forms addresses. It would be great to regularly browse their business on the internet to see if the owner’s exposed contact addresses are not authorized. The most significant focus should be on marketing and finance departments, as they are the most common cybercrime targets.
Also, they should keep in touch with professionals to do an attack exercise with employees to make them aware of potential problems and vulnerabilities. Training like this will help to establish procedures to minimize damage if an actual attack occurs. Updating operating systems and applications without needless delay on computers is very important!
Often, attacks are planned immediately upon the launch of updates by software manufacturers. Therefore, companies should install a trusted security solution. The company’s data and information are the owner’s greatest treasure, but also they are precious goods on the black market. Employees should be prepared to be a target at least once. Management, accounting, and marketing should be especially warned.
The main thing is to train your employees!
Urge your employees to check any email containing a link before opening it. It often happens that one of the employee’s contacts is the victim of an attack and is unaware that he has become an attacker. Alert all employees to the possible risks and dangers of posting company information on social networks. Infrequently, users have “open” profiles, so collecting data through social networks is the easiest way.
Find the best way to raise awareness among employees about possible attacks without spreading panic. The purpose of awareness is not to raise the level of fear but to raise awareness! Education is the key to success. Studies have shown that trained employees recognize up to 93% of cyberattacks.
