Over the past twelve months, attacks by phishing exploded by 450% according to a study Netskope. The pirates do not lack imagination to make their victims click on the link which will allow them to steal their sesames. Rather than attacking only users’ mailboxes, one of the tools noticed by the experts of this cybersecurity company is based on an excellent mastery of the SEO natural.
Hackers strive to create content that can be easily processed by search engines and pushed to the first page of results for sites with tricks. This is called optimization SEOfrom methods used by all web content publishers to get their publications back in the top results when someone searches for keywords. Finally, it is the algorithms of Google and Bing who come to seek out and highlight this malicious content.
Search engines, springboards for phishing
While email users have learned to be wary of certain emails, defending against attacks whose main weapon is good SEO seems much more complicated. Even when the fake website is very well designed, there are elements that should suggest mistrust.
For example, in the case of a PDF download, it is likely that a fake captcha is displayed. This method should immediately delete the downloaded file. Knowing how to identify potentially malicious links before clicking is also essential, but while the technique of phishing still wreaks havoc, it remains hard to imagine a revolution in user behavior, especially when malicious items are propelled by search engines.
Interested in what you just read?