The US government has just tested the power of spoofing/phishing emails with a cyber attack on Iranian missile systems and has reported they were able to disable those systems. Spoofing/phishing emails are the tool of the average fraudster and is something that can be implemented without someone who is overly technical. We are not talking of the type of hackers portrayed in Hollywood films we are only talking about the ability for someone to send an email. If someone can disable missile systems from an email, it is certainly worrying. In this case however the attacks are spear-phishing whereby malicious software is downloaded and installed. This would require a certain sophistication and require an infrastructure to understand the systems that the Iranian military use, however in this case the attack may have been aimed at a more general systems sent in large waves.
We should however be worried as this tactic is used by the average fraudster sending 1000’s of emails every day in the hope that one email will seem legitimate to the right person. More so in the case of law firms who may receive targeted attacks. We can protect ourselves by being aware of the types of attacks out there and being hyper-vigilant when a large number of phishing attacks appear in your inbox at any one time and being aware if the tactics people use.
