Let's Talk About One of the Harder Phishing Attacks to Recognize

Multi-stage phishing attacks are sophisticated cyberattack methods that involve multiple steps or phases to achieve the attacker’s ultimate goal, such as stealing sensitive information, deploying malware, or extracting financial gain. Unlike traditional phishing, which is often a single email or message, multi-stage attacks build trust and credibility over time, making them harder to detect and more effective.

How Multi-Stage Phishing Works
1️⃣ Initial Contact: The attacker starts with a seemingly benign interaction. This could be a friendly email, a survey request, a social media connection, or an invitation to download a non-malicious document. The goal is to establish communication and gain trust without raising suspicion.
2️⃣ Trust Building: Over days or weeks, the attacker continues to interact, sharing information, engaging in small talk, or providing useful resources. This builds rapport and lowers the target's defenses. The attacker may use this stage to gather more information about the target's organization or personal life.
3️⃣ Credential Harvesting or Payload Delivery: After establishing trust, the attacker sends a more targeted request. This could be a link to a fake website that looks legitimate, prompting the victim to log in with their credentials, or it could be an attachment or link containing malware disguised as a trusted document or application.
4️⃣ Exploitation: Once the attacker gains access, they exploit the obtained information or install malware to achieve their final goal, such as exfiltrating data, conducting financial fraud, or maintaining long-term access to the victim’s systems.

Example of a Multi-Stage Phishing Attack
Scenario: Targeting a Finance Department Employee

Initial Contact: An attacker sends an email to a finance department employee, posing as a researcher from a reputable institution conducting a survey on corporate financial practices. The email contains no malicious links or attachments, just a genuine-looking survey form that collects non-sensitive data.

Trust Building: After a few days, the attacker follows up with a thank-you email, attaching an “exclusive” industry report that may interest the employee. This report is legitimate and contains no malware. The attacker continues to build rapport by sending occasional emails with industry insights or useful data.

Credential Harvesting: A few weeks later, the attacker sends another email from a similar address, stating that the industry report has been updated. They include a link to a website that appears to belong to the institution. However, this website is a carefully crafted fake. When the employee logs in to access the report, they unknowingly provide their corporate login credentials to the attacker.