Piergiorgio Venuti
Ethical Phishing: the key to protecting your business from cyber threats
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Index
- Introduction
- What is Ethical Phishing
- The different types of Ethical Phishing
- The benefits of an Ethical Phishing campaign
- The role of training
- Ethical Phishing with Secure Online Desktop
- Conclusion
Introduction
In the digital age, cyber security has become a priority for all businesses. One of the most insidious threats is phishing, a social engineering technique used to steal sensitive information by sending fraudulent emails. To combat this threat, it is imperative that companies implement effective security measures, including Ethical Phishing campaigns. In this article, we’ll explore why every business should run an Ethical Phishing campaign on a regular basis, the different types of Ethical Phishing, and how Secure Online Desktop’s Ethical Phishing service could boost corporate security.
What is Ethical Phishing
Ethical Phishing, also known as “Simulated Phishing” or “Phishing Test“, is a practice which consists of carrying out controlled and planned phishing attacks against one’s own personnel. The goal is to test user awareness of phishing threats and to evaluate the effectiveness of security policies and procedures in place.
Ethical Phishing campaigns are simulated in order to replicate real attacks as closely as possible, using fake emails and websites that imitate the legitimate ones. In this way, it is possible to evaluate the behavior of users in the face of phishing attempts and identify any vulnerabilities.
The different types of Ethical Phishing
There are different types of Ethical Phishing, which vary according to the degree of customization and the objective of the simulated attack. The main types are:
- General Phishing: This is a non-personalized attack, where generic emails are sent to a large group of users. The goal is to evaluate general user awareness of phishing threats.
- Spear Phishing: In this case, the attack is aimed at a specific group of users or a single individual. Emails are personalized with information about the recipient, such as name, company role or other personal information, in order to increase the likelihood of a successful attack.
- Whaling: this type of attack is aimed at individuals with roles of responsibility within the company, such as executives or managers. The emails are personalized with detailed and targeted information, in order to convince the recipient to perform actions that could jeopardize the company’s security.
- Clone Phishing: in this case, a legitimate communication previously sent to the user is replicated, with the addition of malicious elements, such as infected links or attachments. The goal is to evaluate the user’s ability to recognize fraudulent emails that imitate legitimate ones.
The benefits of an Ethical Phishing campaign
Regularly running an Ethical Phishing campaign has many advantages for companies. Below, we list some of the most significant:
- Identification of vulnerabilities: an Ethical Phishing campaign allows you to identify the areas where personnel are most exposed to phishing attacks, allowing you to take targeted corrective measures.
- Improved Awareness: Through exposure to simulated attacks, users learn to recognize the warning signs and behave more confidently in the face of real phishing attempts.
- Evaluation of policies and procedures: an Ethical Phishing campaign allows you to verify the effectiveness of the security policies and procedures in place, identifying any gaps or areas for improvement.
- Risk reduction: Raising awareness and fixing vulnerabilities helps reduce the risk of falling victim to real phishing attacks, thus safeguarding sensitive information and company reputation.
The role of training
A key component of an Ethical Phishing campaign is staff training. Once you’ve identified vulnerabilities and areas for improvement, it’s essential to equip your employees with the knowledge and tools they need to recognize and deal with phishing attacks.
Training may include information sessions, hands-on simulations, role-playing exercises and the use of educational materials, such as videos, guides and quizzes. Additionally, it’s important to monitor progress over time and update training as new threats and emerging trends change.
Ethical Phishing with Secure Online Desktop
The Ethical Phishing service offered by Secure Online Desktop represents an effective solution for increasing corporate security. Through a variety of simulated and customized attacks, Secure Online Desktop helps organizations identify vulnerabilities, evaluate the effectiveness of security policies and procedures, and improve user awareness.
In addition, Secure Online Desktop provides targeted and up-to-date training, which takes into account the latest threats and trends in the field of information security. In this way, companies can be sure that they have well-trained and knowledgeable staff capable of dealing with the challenges posed by phishing attacks.
Conclusion
Running an Ethical Phishing campaign on a regular basis is critical to protecting businesses from phishing threats. By identifying vulnerabilities, training staff, and evaluating security policies and procedures, organizations can reduce the risk of falling victim to real attacks and safeguard sensitive information and their reputation. The Ethical Phishing service offered by Secure Online Desktop represents an effective solution to achieve these objectives and increase corporate security in the long term.
Useful links:
Share
RSS
More Articles…
- From Secure Online Desktop to Cyberfero: rebranding of the leading cybersecurity company
- NIS: what it is and how it protects cybersecurity
- Advanced persistent threats (APTs): what they are and how to defend yourself
- Penetration Testing and MFA: A Dual Strategy to Maximize Security
- Penetration Testing: Where to Strike to Protect Your IT Network
- Ransomware: a plague that brings companies and institutions to their knees. Should you pay the ransom? Here is the answer.
- Why IT audit and log management are important for Cybersecurity
- Red Team, Blue Team and Purple Team: what are the differences?
Categories …
- Backup as a Service (18)
- Acronis Cloud Backup (11)
- Veeam Cloud Connect (4)
- Cloud Conference (3)
- Cloud CRM (1)
- Cloud Server/VPS (22)
- Conferenza Cloud (4)
- Cyberfero (15)
- ICT Monitoring (5)
- Log Management (2)
- News (25)
- ownCloud (4)
- Privacy (7)
- Security (203)
- Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) (8)
- Deception (4)
- Ethical Phishing (11)
- Netwrix Auditor (2)
- Penetration Test (11)
- Posture Guard (3)
- SOCaaS (65)
- Vulnerabilities (84)
- Web Hosting (15)
Tags
darkreading
- How Can PR Protect Companies During a Cyberattack? November 21, 2024When a cybersecurity incident occurs, it's not just IT systems and data that are at risk — a company's reputation is on the line, too.
- It's Near-Unanimous: AI, ML Make the SOC Better November 20, 2024Efficiency is the name of the game for the security operations center — and 91% of cybersecurity pros say artificial intelligence and machine learning are winning that game.
- China's 'Liminal Panda' APT Attacks Telcos, Steals Phone Data November 20, 2024In US Senate testimony, a CrowdStrike exec explained how this advanced persistent threat penetrated telcos in Asia and Africa, gathering SMS messages, unique identifiers, and other metadata along the way.
- Alleged Ford 'Breach' Encompasses Auto Dealer Info November 20, 2024Cybersecurity investigators found the leaked data to be information from a third party, not Ford itself, that is already accessible to the public and not sensitive in nature.
- Apple Urgently Patches Actively Exploited Zero-Days November 20, 2024Though information regarding the exploits is limited, the company did report that Intel-based Mac systems have been targeted by cybercriminals looking to exploit CVE-2024-44308 and CVE-2024-44309.
- Small US Cyber Agencies Are Underfunded & That's a Problem November 20, 2024If the US wants to maintain its lead in cybersecurity, it needs to make the tough funding decisions that are demanded of it.
- 'Water Barghest' Sells Hijacked IoT Devices for Proxy Botnet Misuse November 20, 2024An elusive, sophisticated cybercriminal group has used known and zero-day vulnerabilities to compromise more than 20,000 SOHO routers and other IoT devices so far, and then puts them up for sale on a residential proxy marketplace for state-sponsored cyber-espionage actors and others to use.
- African Reliance on Foreign Suppliers Boosts Insecurity Concerns November 20, 2024Recent backdoor implants and cyber-espionage attacks on their supply chains have African organizations looking to diversify beyond Chinese, American tech vendors.
- DeepTempo Launches AI-Based Security App for Snowflake November 20, 2024DeepTempo's Tempo is a deep learning-based Snowflake native app that allows organizations to detect and respond to evolving threats directly within their Snowflake environments.
- RIIG Launches With Risk Intelligence Solutions November 20, 2024RIIG is a risk intelligence and cybersecurity solutions provider offering open source intelligence solutions designed for zero-trust environments.
Full Disclosure
- SEC Consult SA-20241112-0 :: Multiple vulnerabilities in Siemens Energy Omnivise T3000 (CVE-2024-38876, CVE-2024-38877, CVE-2024-38878, CVE-2024-38879) November 13, 2024Posted by SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab via Fulldisclosure on Nov 12SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab Security Advisory < 20241112-0 > ======================================================================= title: Multiple vulnerabilities product: Siemens Energy Omnivise T3000 vulnerable version: >=8.2 SP3 fixed version: see solution section CVE number: CVE-2024-38876, CVE-2024-38877, CVE-2024-38878, CVE-2024-38879 impact: High...
- Security issue in the TX Text Control .NET Server for ASP.NET. November 13, 2024Posted by Filip Palian on Nov 12Hej, Let's keep it short ... ===== Intro ===== A "sudo make me a sandwich" security issue has been identified in the TX Text Control .NET Server for ASP.NET[1]. According to the vendor[2], "the most powerful, MS Word compatible document editor that runs in all browsers". Likely all versions […]
- SEC Consult SA-20241107-0 :: Multiple Vulnerabilities in HASOMED Elefant and Elefant Software Updater November 10, 2024Posted by SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab via Fulldisclosure on Nov 09SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab Security Advisory < 20241107-0 > ======================================================================= title: Multiple Vulnerabilities product: HASOMED Elefant and Elefant Software Updater vulnerable version:
- Unsafe eval() in TestRail CLI November 7, 2024Posted by Devin Cook on Nov 06This is not a very exciting vulnerability, but I had already publicly disclosed it on GitHub at the request of the vendor. Since that report has disappeared, the link I had provided to MITRE was invalid, so here it is again. -Devin --- # Unsafe `eval()` in TestRail CLI […]
- 4 vulnerabilities in ibmsecurity November 3, 2024Posted by Pierre Kim on Nov 03## Advisory Information Title: 4 vulnerabilities in ibmsecurity Advisory URL: https://pierrekim.github.io/advisories/2024-ibmsecurity.txt Blog URL: https://pierrekim.github.io/blog/2024-11-01-ibmsecurity-4-vulnerabilities.html Date published: 2024-11-01 Vendors contacted: IBM Release mode: Released CVE: CVE-2024-31871, CVE-2024-31872, CVE-2024-31873, CVE-2024-31874 ## Product description ## Vulnerability Summary Vulnerable versions:...
- 32 vulnerabilities in IBM Security Verify Access November 3, 2024Posted by Pierre Kim on Nov 03## Advisory Information Title: 32 vulnerabilities in IBM Security Verify Access Advisory URL: https://pierrekim.github.io/advisories/2024-ibm-security-verify-access.txt Blog URL: https://pierrekim.github.io/blog/2024-11-01-ibm-security-verify-access-32-vulnerabilities.html Date published: 2024-11-01 Vendors contacted: IBM Release mode: Released CVE: CVE-2022-2068, CVE-2023-30997, CVE-2023-30998, CVE-2023-31001, CVE-2023-31004, CVE-2023-31005,...
- xlibre Xnest security advisory & bugfix releases October 31, 2024Posted by Enrico Weigelt, metux IT consult on Oct 31XLibre project security advisory --------------------------------- As Xlibre Xnest is based on Xorg, it is affected by some security issues which recently became known in Xorg: CVE-2024-9632: can be triggered by providing a modified bitmap to the X.Org server. CVE-2024-9632: Heap-based buffer overflow privilege escalation in _XkbSetCompatMap […]
- APPLE-SA-10-29-2024-1 Safari 18.1 October 31, 2024Posted by Apple Product Security via Fulldisclosure on Oct 31APPLE-SA-10-29-2024-1 Safari 18.1 Safari 18.1 addresses the following issues. Information about the security content is also available at https://support.apple.com/121571. Apple maintains a Security Releases page at https://support.apple.com/100100 which lists recent software updates with security advisories. Safari Downloads Available for: macOS Ventura and macOS Sonoma Impact: An […]
- SEC Consult SA-20241030-0 :: Query Filter Injection in Ping Identity PingIDM (formerly known as ForgeRock Identity Management) (CVE-2024-23600) October 31, 2024Posted by SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab via Fulldisclosure on Oct 31SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab Security Advisory < 20241030-0 > ======================================================================= title: Query Filter Injection product: Ping Identity PingIDM (formerly known as ForgeRock Identity Management) vulnerable version: v7.0.0 - v7.5.0 (and older unsupported versions) fixed version: various patches; v8.0 CVE number:...
- SEC Consult SA-20241023-0 :: Authenticated Remote Code Execution in Multiple Xerox printers (CVE-2024-6333) October 29, 2024Posted by SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab via Fulldisclosure on Oct 28SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab Security Advisory < 20241023-0 > ======================================================================= title: Authenticated Remote Code Execution product: Multiple Xerox printers (EC80xx, AltaLink, VersaLink, WorkCentre) vulnerable version: see vulnerable versions below fixed version: see solution section below CVE number: CVE-2024-6333...
Customers
Twitter FEED
Recent activity
-
SecureOnlineDesktop
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes L'impatto crescente delle minacce informatiche, su sistemi operativi privati op… https://t.co/FimxTS4o9G
-
SecureOnlineDesktop
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes The growing impact of cyber threats, on private or corporate operating systems… https://t.co/y6G6RYA9n1
-
SecureOnlineDesktop
Tempo di lettura stimato: 6 minuti Today we are talking about the CTI update of our services. Data security is… https://t.co/YAZkn7iFqa
-
SecureOnlineDesktop
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Il tema della sicurezza delle informazioni è di grande attualità in questo peri… https://t.co/tfve5Kzr09
-
SecureOnlineDesktop
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes The issue of information security is very topical in this historical period ch… https://t.co/TP8gvdRcrF
Newsletter
{subscription_form_1}Products and Solutions
Partners
Cloud Models
News
- From Secure Online Desktop to Cyberfero: rebranding of the leading cybersecurity company May 6, 2024
- NIS: what it is and how it protects cybersecurity April 22, 2024
- Advanced persistent threats (APTs): what they are and how to defend yourself April 17, 2024
- Penetration Testing and MFA: A Dual Strategy to Maximize Security April 15, 2024
- Penetration Testing: Where to Strike to Protect Your IT Network March 25, 2024
Google Reviews
Ottima azienda, servizi molto utili, staff qualificato e competente. Raccomandata!read more
Ottimo supportoread more
E' un piacere poter collaborare con realtà di questo tiporead more
Un ottimo fornitore.
Io personalmente ho parlato con l' Ing. Venuti, valore aggiunto indubbiamente.read more
About
© 2024 Cyberfero s.r.l. All Rights Reserved. Sede Legale: via Statuto 3 - 42121 Reggio Emilia (RE) – PEC [email protected] Cod. fiscale e P.IVA 03058120357 – R.E.A. 356650 Informativa Privacy - Certificazioni ISO