What is Credential Phishing? How Does Credential Phishing Work? The Dangers of Credential Phishing

Credential phishing is the type of attack attempting to steal information that is associated with sensitive login credentials, usernames, passwords, or any other information used for authentication. The people don’t know they are being cheated and offer the login information while trying to get access to real sites; sometimes, their sites resemble the original ones. The stolen credentials give the cybercriminal unauthorized access to individuals’ accounts, companies’ systems, or confidential data.

These services may include email, internet banking, social media, or company systems. Being by the nature of internet integration, credential phishing is always one of the methods hackers frequently use against individuals and organizations.

How Does Credential Phishing Work?

Credential phishing is a process with more than one step, so it must fool the victims into giving away their sensitive information at every turn. Every phase is both designed and aimed to deliver a sense of urgency and a sense of legitimacy at each stage, so the chance of a victim falling for the scam increases at every step.

1. Baiting with a Phishing Email or Message:

The first step of a credential phishing attack is sending a well-dressed message to the target. It might be an email, SMS, or social media communication that shall claim to come from some reputed company, financial institute, or even a friend. Then the attacker would spoof the “from” address or display name to make the message appear legitimate.

For example:

•   Your account is compromised! Reset password at once.
•   Unusual login detected. Confirm your account details now.

The attackers are relying on panic, hoping that the person being harassed will click on the link without verifying whether the message is genuine.

2. Redirected to a Fake Website:

Then, after the activation of the link given, the victim is taken to a counterfeit website appearing to resemble the real one as a login page of a bank, a portal site of an email service provider or an e-commerce site. In general, such sites are made with great care for detail. There may be close copies of the logos, fonts, and even layouts of the real sites. Even the URL could almost be correct-except for some minute detail, such as an “i” substituted for a lowercase “L” or an added letter to the domain name (“banksecure.com” instead of “bank.com”). This phishing site is the heart of the operation, as that is where the attackers are hoping the victim would feel comfortable enough to enter their login credentials. Users may not notice anything inappropriate, especially if the site looks professional, thus increasing the probability of success.

3. Collecting Credentials:

Upon being taken to the phishing site, the victim is asked for his or her login credentials, such as username and password, in fields that mimic the site of authenticity. Often the phishing site may solicit even more information by providing a series of “security” or “verification” steps, some of which include:

•   Responses to security questions.
•   Two-factor authentication codes.
•   Credit card information.
•   Personal identification numbers (PINs).
•   Social Security numbers and other identifying information.

The moment the victim shares this information, it is sent directly to the attacker. The phishing website can forward the victim to the real website once it has taken the data, which the victim may then think nothing has gone wrong.

4. Leveraging the Stolen Information:

Once the trespasser gets the credentials of a victim, he can access the account directly by obtaining the information for immediate use.

•   Bank or other payment service accounts: This is where the attackers will have unauthorized transactions made, thus siphoning off the money in that account or stealing the whole account over.
•   Email or social media accounts: The attackers can send phishing emails or messages to contacts from the victim’s email or social media accounts or to try to reset the passwords of other services linked to the affected account.
•   Corporate Systems: Phishing through credentials can severely breach the security of most businesses as an attacker can gain access to sensitive company data and intellectual property or even privilege accounts with administrative access to critical systems.

The attackers may do nothing at all, immediately. These leaked credentials can be saved for later use or sold on the dark web. In other instances, attackers even utilize the stolen credentials as part of a larger scheme-for instance, as part of ransomware or corporate espionage attacks.

5. Advanced Credential Phishing Methods:

Attacker also sometimes involves more sophisticated techniques to carry out these crimes:

•   Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attacks: MitM basically tracks the communication between the user and a legitimate website. This allows the attacker to capture live credentials.
•   Credential Stuffing: If attackers find credentials from one source, then they might attempt using the same username-password combinations across other platforms for the assumption that many users reuse their login details.

The Dangers of Credential Phishing

Credential phishing poses several risks-serious both in terms of individual and organizational interests:

1.     Data breaches: The login credentials will enable attackers to break into the system and obtain private information ranging from personal info to financial records and intellectual property. Such attacks would be a heavy blow to businesses in terms of losses; loss in terms of dollars through data breaches, customers’ distrust, and liability.
2.     Financial Loss: Hackers will then use those stolen credentials to make unauthorized transactions or siphon funds from their accounts in a bank, make fraudulent purchases, etc. An individual will suffer direct financial loss, and a firm will face great monetary loss through fraud or ransom demands.
3.     Identity fraud: Normally, the identity thief can thereafter use the information to pose as the victim either by opening new accounts in his name or applying for loans and committing other identity frauds once he gains access to the personal information. This may all result in immense loss in the long run to the credit rating and personal reputation of the victim.
4.     Corporate Espionage: Often, credential phishing is just a step of a more complex effort to invade the internal systems of an organization. For example, criminals may obtain classified business information or even monitor the operations of the targeted organization that would lead to disadvantages and major financial hurts in terms of competition.
5.     Further Exploitation with Privileged Access Further, if the attackers are able to acquire the organization’s credentials that contains administrative or privileged access, it would help these attackers elevate their attack completely to take over control of the entire network. This helps an attacker disable all sorts of security controls, install malware, or manipulate system configurations in order to prolong their access and have a bigger impact.

Protecting Against Credential Phishing

Therefore, both individual and organization will have the necessitated key security practices to reduce the risks of credential phishing.

1.     Multi-Factor Authentication: In such a case if somebody does steal your credentials, requiring another layer or two of additional security can thwart unauthorized entry.
2.     Spam filtering and security software: It can filter to block spam emails and flag suspicious sites with the assistance of security software.
3.     Be Careful When Validating URLs: Make sure a site is authentic by checking, rechecking authenticity before entering your login information as well as when being prompted by unsolicited messages.

Credential phishing is one of the huge issues in this modern world that one finds very hard to ignore, mainly because most systems update information about phishing rates. If one is also briefed on how it is actually carried out, the chance to fall prey to it is significantly reduced.

Don’t Get Hooked! Unmasking the Dangers of Credential Phishing

Protect your logins from sneaky scams. Learn how credential phishing works and how to stay safe online.