Dive Brief:
- Thousands of people have received a new type of phishing email that includes the recipient’s home address in the body of the message, the BBC reported Wednesday.
- The emails claim that the receivers owe money to various companies in the United Kingdom. Clicking on the email's included link also reportedly installs malware.
- One security researcher said it was likely that either a website or a retailer had its database stolen. The attack, he said, was similar to phishing attempts from groups in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Dive Insight:
Phishing schemes are growing increasingly sophisticated as cybercriminals use new tools and tactics to create authentic-looking emails.
"The email has good spelling and grammar and my exact home address...when I say exact I mean, not the way my address is written by those autofill sections on web pages, but the way I write my address,” said Shari Vahl, a recipient of one of the emails, to the BBC.
In December, anti-phishing company PhishMe said phishing emails pretending to be regular office communications are the most effective, with an average clickthrough rate of 22%.
While security companies continue to build products that can prevent these types of attacks in the workplace, education around email security must be a cornerstone for all enterprises.
