You might have heard of phishing attacks. There are types of phishing attacks and today we will talk about what is Clone Phishing and How to avoid them.
What Is Phishing?
Phishing is one of the most widespread and common cyber-attack techniques. This is a social engineering attack that involves psychological manipulation and relies on human failure. Phishing attacks occur when malicious actors impersonate well-known entities or businesses in order to deceive people and collect their sensitive data such as credit card details, usernames and passwords.
What is Clone Phishing?
Clone phishing is a bit of a game changer. Clone phishing is a little different from typical phishing attempts. Clone phishing attacks use legitimate or previously sent emails that contain attachments or links. A clone is an approximate copy of the original with attachments or replaced links by malware or viruses. Emails are often disguised as being sent by the original sender and claiming it was a simple resend. To make matters worse, the email is sent to a large number of recipients and the attacker just waits for the victim to click on it. When the victim succumbs to the cloned email, the attacker forwards the same fake email from the victim's inbox to the contact. This type of attack is considered the most harmful because it is difficult for victims to suspect spoofed emails.
how to avoid it?
To avoid falling into clone phishing scams, double-check every email you receive, no matter how legitimate it looks. The first step is to look for the malicious email signs mentioned in the previous section. Take the following steps:
- Check the validity of the sender address.
- Look for any spelling or grammatical errors in emails.
- Do not click on any links until you have verified that the email is legitimate.
- Use a spam filter.
What are the types of Phishing?
- Email phishing
- HTTPS phishing
- Spear phishing
- Whaling/CEO fraud
-Vishing
- Smishing
- Angler phishing
- Pharming
- Pop-up phishing
- Clone phishing
- Evil twin
- Watering hole phishing
Hopefully, now you will know what is Clone phishing and how to avoid it. It's your responsibility to be careful and avoid letting these sneaky crooks take advantage of you.
