The Latest Phishing Trends and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve

📚 Quick Study Guide

• 🎣 Phishing Definition: Deceptive attempts to obtain sensitive information like usernames, passwords, and credit card details, often disguised as trustworthy entities.
• 📧 Common Phishing Channels: Email, SMS (Smishing), phone calls (Vishing), and social media.
• ⚠️ Red Flags: Urgent requests, grammatical errors, suspicious links, mismatched URLs, and requests for personal information.
• 🛡️ Protection Methods: Multi-factor authentication (MFA), strong passwords, verifying sender authenticity, not clicking suspicious links, keeping software updated, and using anti-phishing tools.
• 🚨 Latest Trends: AI-powered phishing attacks, business email compromise (BEC), QR code phishing (Quishing), and attacks targeting remote workers.
• 💡 Staying Ahead: Continuous education, simulated phishing exercises, and awareness of new attack vectors.

Practice Quiz

1. Which of the following is NOT a common phishing channel?
   1. Email
   2. Social Media
   3. Postal Mail
   4. SMS
2. What is a common red flag in a phishing email?
   1. Personalized Greetings
   2. Grammatical Errors
   3. Formal Tone
   4. Informative Content
3. What does MFA stand for?
   1. Multi-Factor Automation
   2. Multiple-Form Authentication
   3. Multi-Factor Authentication
   4. Maximum Factor Authorization
4. What is 'Smishing'?
   1. Phishing through smoke signals
   2. Phishing through social media
   3. Phishing through SMS messages
   4. Phishing through email
5. What is a BEC attack?
   1. Basic Email Compromise
   2. Business Email Compromise
   3. Broad Email Communication
   4. Brave Email Campaign
6. Which of these is the LEAST effective way to protect yourself from phishing?
   1. Using strong, unique passwords
   2. Clicking links in emails from senders you don't recognize
   3. Enabling Multi-Factor Authentication
   4. Keeping your software updated
7. What is 'Quishing'?
   1. Phishing through quizzes
   2. Phishing using QR codes
   3. Phishing involving quicksand
   4. Phishing for questions