{"id":140659,"date":"2023-12-15T11:55:35","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T11:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com"},"modified":"2023-12-15T16:19:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T16:19:55","slug":"anatomy-of-a-phishing-attack-how-hackers-trick-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/anatomy-of-a-phishing-attack-how-hackers-trick-you","title":{"rendered":"Anatomy of a Phishing Attack: How Hackers Trick You"},"content":{"rendered":"

They’ve been used against us for over two decades, so phishing attacks<\/a> are hardly new. They have evolved, however. No longer limited to email, they can also be delivered by social media<\/a> and SMS text messages<\/a>. It’s the ever-evolving delivery of the same old scams in new clothing.<\/p>\n

Modern-Day Phishing: The Minefield in Your Mailbox<\/span><\/h2>\n

Phishing is a form of cyberattack<\/a> that is delivered predominantly by email. In a 2017 report by Symantec<\/a>, they determined that there were 135 million phishing emails sent every day, and 1.5 million fraudulent websites were created every month to facilitate these scams.<\/p>\n

Those are big figures. Two factors make phishing attacks popular with cybercriminals or “threat actors<\/a>.” Firstly, they are easy attacks to conduct. At its most basic level, a phishing attack is the simplest form of cyberattack. All you need to do is send emails. The second reason is phishing scams are successful. People are duped by them all the time. It’s a threat actor’s dream \u2013 a simple attack that works.<\/p>\n

The Anatomy of a Phishing Attack<\/span><\/h2>\n

The basic premise is a phishing email mimics an email from a genuine entity. It may masquerade as an email from an organization you recognize, like PayPal<\/a>, X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>, or Facebook<\/a>. It might impersonate a figure of authority, such as a law enforcement agency or a senior executive in your own organization.<\/p>\n

The email tries to compel you to perform an action.<\/p>\n