The impacts of a phishing attack

Don’t click on a suspicious link. Most people have been warned about phishing, but may not fully understand the impact of a phishing attack.  

A successful phishing attack can have many consequences. Sometimes financial, sometimes reputational, and often times severe. Explore some of the common impacts a phishing attack can have on an organisation.  

Credential theft may lead major business disruption  

A phishing attack to steal credentials is looking to secure the end user’s identity through password theft. Once passwords are stolen a cyber criminal has potentially opened the doors to an organisation’s highly confidential data.  

Once successfully hacked into an organisation’s network, criminals may install encryption ransomware shutting off all access to organisational systems and data until a bounty is paid. Expect major business disruption as your IT teams spend valuable time to identify the ransomware, communicate to employees, update security systems, deal with authorities and recover the files.  

Installing malware may lead to extortion  

Sometimes a phishing scam will install malware (malicious software) on a user’s device. Once infected scammers have access to files and can track user behaviour. By accessing these files and spying on employee’s digital movements, cyber criminals can actively steal important company data. Once that data is lost or stolen, employees and organisations may receive extortion emails, demanding payments to avoid the release of sensitive data or information.  

Social engineering may lead to monetary theft  

Through a social engineering attack like phishing, employees are exploited into providing access to data, information, networks and even money. Cyber criminals may access supplier information, then impersonate said suppliers, manipulating invoices with ‘updated’ banking details hoping organisations send invoice payment to criminal accounts.

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These are just some of the attack vectors a phishing attack can have within an organisation and is not a fully comprehensive list. Stop phishing at your organisation’s first line of defence, your employees. Properly trained employees can become a human firewall for your business. Request a demo of Phriendly Phishing today and let us show you how we can reduce your organisation’s phishing risk.

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