What is Phishing?
Phishing is a form of Social Engineering in which attackers pose as a trusted party in order to deceive people into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords, credit card details or system access.
The aim of phishing is often to gain unauthorised access or to infect systems with Malware such as Ransomware.
🎯 How does phishing work?
A phishing attack is usually delivered via:
- Email: a fake email from a “bank”, “government body” or “IT department”, for example
- Web page: a copycat website that asks you to log in
- Phone (vishing): a fake call from, say, a help desk or supplier
- SMS or WhatsApp (smishing): a message containing a suspicious link or instruction
🚨 Spotting phishing attempts
| Sign | Example |
|---|---|
| Urgency or threats | ”Your account will be blocked within 24 hours!” |
| Unknown sender or domain name | Spam mail |
| Strange links | Pointing to a malicious website |
| Unexpected attachments | ZIP, EXE or Office files with macros |
| Poor language or formatting | Typos or awkward translations |
🧠 What can phishing cause?
- Data breaches and identity theft
- The spread of Malware or Spyware
- Unauthorised access to OT or IT systems
- Financial damage or loss of reputation
- Internal incidents that must be reported (e.g. under NIS2)
✅ Protection against phishing
- Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- Take part in regular awareness training
- Use a spam filter and an EDR solution
- Always check links and senders carefully
- Report suspicious emails immediately to your CSIRT or IT department
📌 In summary
Phishing is a deceptive attack method that tries to elicit human errors. It is often the first step in larger cyber incidents and requires a combination of technology and alert behaviour to combat.