Bait phishing: the next frontier
Fred Touchette · Computer Fraud & Security · 2014
Last year, 2013, ended with a Target-shaped bombshell affecting the financial details of 40 million customers – with some estimating the real figure to be much higher.1 The subsequent investigation of the breach at the major US retailer appears to have identified a phishing email, sent to a third-party contractor, as the most likely avenue that allowed these criminals to infiltrate Target's network. Unfortunately Target isn't the first and is unlikely to be the last victim of this type of attack. This year, 2014, has started with record levels of phishing activity coupled with an even greater increase in email activity distributing malware. These attacks work, as one red-faced employee of Target's supplier Fazio Mechanical can testify. Are we on the cusp of a new ‘phishing frontier’?