Phishing is a malicious attempt by a threat actor to convince users to open malicious links or files and is the number one cause of ransomware.
Threat actors use phishing techniques to acquire sensitive data, such as bank account numbers, passwords, PINs, credit card numbers, and more. Legitimate systems like emails, texts, phone calls, social media messages, and spoofed websites become instruments for fraudulent solicitations in which the perpetrator masquerades as a trusted business or reputable person.
One simple yet highly effective way to combat phishing attacks is by implementing company branding on your login pages.
So says ThreatLocker Special Projects Engineer Adam Fuller.
In an episode of the 100 days to secure your environment webinar series, Fuller noted that while company branding may be a seemingly small detail, it can make a significant difference in a user's ability to identify and avoid malicious attempts.
“Most fishing is blanket fishing,” said Fuller. “Someone clicks on it, the threat actors get a password or they get a token, and then they go after the victim.”
Phishing, particularly blanket phishing, relies on generic login pages that look similar to legitimate ones, tricking users into entering their credentials. However, if your login page is branded with your company's logo, and your users are accustomed to seeing that specific logo when they go to login, they are far less likely to input their password into a generic, unbranded page. This simple visual cue acts as an immediate red flag, making it evident that something is amiss. Studies indicate that a significant percentage of brand phishing attempts, around 43%, involve non-branded Microsoft login pages. This means a large portion of phishing attacks can be mitigated by this one action.
Configuring branding on your login pages is straightforward and incurs no additional cost, Fuller noted. This involves setting up your company logo and potentially other branding elements on the Microsoft login page via the user experiences section. Not only does it enhance security by making phishing attempts more discernible, but it also makes the marketing department happy by reinforcing brand identity.
Key takeaway: Branding your login pages with your company's logo is a cost-effective and impactful security measure that leverages visual recognition to significantly reduce the success rate of generic phishing attacks.
Anyone can be targeted by a phishing attack. Here are the most common types of phishing attacks to be on the alert for.
Read the post
Request your 30-day trial to the entire ThreatLocker platform today.
Try ThreatLocker