Microsoft Shuts Down the Spear Phishing Scheme of Bohrium Hackers

“Hi there. We have detected some suspicious activity on your account. Please click on the link below to reset your password. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience.”

This is what a run-of-the-mill phishing attack looks like. To succeed, phishing scammers heavily rely on their spoofing ability and, as always, user error.

But this cyberthreat goes even deeper. Spear phishing is commonly targeted at people from rising sectors like IT, education, and e-commerce.

Microsoft’s Digital Crime Unit (DCU) decided to try and put an end to spear phishing. Let’s see how they approached the problem and what all of us can learn from this whole situation.

What is spear phishing?

Spear phishing is a relatively new term, but we already have notorious spear phishing cases, with the list only getting longer. It is a form of phishing that doesn’t only rely on chance and spam but on precision and targeting instead.

The whole point of targeted spear phishing is to extract data from companies and businesses rather than from random people across the internet.

The problem is – this type of cyber attack isn’t for the big players only. And since precision is needed for an attack like this, the hacker group will often do thorough research on the target, which increases their chances of a successful attack.

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Who are the targets of spear phishing?

Every business that operates online is a potential target. Again, compared to plain old phishing that is executed at a large scale without much thought, spear phishing attacks require preparation and detailed planning.

So, the most lucrative targets are businesses that have lots of valuable data, specifically those that deal with a large number of customers/clients. The goal of spear phishing is often to extract financial info or user credentials since that is where the value is.

Bohrium hackers and how Microsoft decided to fight them?

An Iranian hacker group named Bohrium recently started a spear phishing operation on high-profile targets. Microsoft’s DCU worked hard at shutting them down. But instead of tracking down the individual cybercriminals, they located the domains connected to the Bohrium group.

A total of 41 domains have been shut down, including some from the pool of “.com”, “.live”, “.org”, and “.net” pool. This made a huge impact on Bohrium operations, which was the goal in the first place – to stop these phishing attacks from happening.

During this whole situation, Microsoft claims that they learned a whole lot about the way these cyber-attacks happen. They say they are working on prevention through security patch updates, all so these attacks stop causing so much damage.

How do you stay safe from spear phishing?

There isn’t a single foolproof solution to protecting your organization from spear phishing attacks. However, there are some security protocols you can implement to help you prevent a cyber crisis and potentially recover if you do get hit by spear phishing.

Here’s a short list of things you can do to avoid getting spear-phished:

• Raise phishing awareness among your colleagues: you should know that an official support agent will never ask for your credentials.
• Create solid backups: utilize encryption to lock and protect your data from getting stolen. For extra convenience, you can use encrypted cloud storage for business and have easy and secure access to your data from anywhere and anytime.
• Create strict sensitive data policies: Restricting sensitive communication through regular channels can save you from a lot of trouble. No one should ask for passwords over DMs.

As you can see, prevention is key when it comes to spear phishing. Because once an attack goes through, there’s not much you can do.

The fight is won, but the war is never over

Hacker groups are quite an unpredictable factor in the cybersecurity world. Microsoft’s DCU did a great job at hindering Bohrium’s main channels of operation. But this doesn’t mean that we should forget about spear phishing.

Stay ahead of the game and level up your cybersecurity protocols asap. Since spear phishing requires thorough target research, it will continue happening less often than regular phishing (for now).

But, in the business world, spear phishing is a threat on the rise. Hackers are getting smarter and more cunning by the day. Stay safe out there!

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Managing Security Risks

With the passage of time, hacking tricks and terminologies are changing and more and more challenging tasks are taking place. The main purpose of hackers is to hit online trading and business communities that have a network of clients and have secrets to make money online.

A business cloud storage like NordLocker is the authentic and secure cloud for your business to synchronize your data. The security and privacy of data of your company have great values to match your preferences and to approach from trusted and valued sources. Before proceeding online, numerous hackers do efforts to match their interests and then proceed to watch the activities of a business.

Reduce Possibilities of Cyber Attacks

Spear phishing requires great analysis and deep acknowledgment to proceed through a user-friendly interface. Useful knowledge and skills are needed to explore plans and to match with the interests and priorities levels of the people to get satisfaction from trusted and valued sources of acknowledgment.

Businesses that have lots of valuable data are the main targets for cyber-attacks from hackers. To achieve a potential target, knowledge about cyber threats can save your data from theft. Always make it possible to secure your data and valued source of acknowledgment through simple and reliable sources.

Escape Everything from Hackers

Detecting some suspicious activity message or the same sort of style to persuade people to change their passwords means you are on the track to being hit by Spear Phishing experts. Hackers are ready to provide you with unexpected losses and steal your valued data. Don’t follow such instructions and restrict your data security to adopt all the possible ways.

Your data security arrangements and measurements should be unbreakable. Negligence and careless behavior of business persons and traders can face swearing problems from hackers. Extracting financial info or user credentials is the main objective of hackers. In cyber-attacks, numerous types of offers, and notifications are received by hackers that can make you excited.

Contacting a large number of customers/clients can help them to sort out the more valuable clients who act upon their instructions to do something. Make sure to approach the best and smart choices according to your priorities and your interest levels.

Concentrate your Security and Privacy of Data

Businesses that have lots of valuable data are the main targets for cyber attacks from hackers. To achieve a potential target, knowledge about cyber threats can save your data from theft. Save your data from potential cyber threats and well manage your data security.

Do your responsible work plans as you can do and never obey the instructions that you may receive from outsiders. Research online to know about useful tactics and tricks to escape from hackers’ attacks. Do not click on unknown links. Concentrate your security and privacy of data and make it possible to get satisfaction from a solid and useful source of acknowledgment.

Be Ready to Face Invisible War

Always be alert and stay safe from spear phishing because it is one of the bad signs to stop your business operations and can hurt you a lot to steal your data and private information that have some value to you.

Spear Phishing has become a threat to managing your data privacy. On the internet, the cyber-crimes ratio is getting high with the passage of time. There is no excuse from hackers. They always find their weak points and hack everything to sell others.

There are different scenarios and analyses that can be avail and that have some value to proceed with careful steps. Make sure to get the best possible solutions and the best safeguard policies that can match your budget and objectives.

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The Best Data and Security Management Persuasions

Like IT, education, and e-commerce sectors are mostly targeted by hackers. Financial institutions, banks, government websites, and NGOs are also included in hacking campaigns.

Try to get some hacking and cyber-attack sources to participate and to match your preferences to access through the guaranteed and valued response. Make sure which parameters and the plan are the best to find the best and quick responding plans. Almost everything depends upon the choices and has some preferences to get satisfied from trusted and valued sources to access the guaranteed and best security features according to the interest’s ad have sprites to manage the best data security management.

Choices, preferences, parameters, and requirements provide the best and smart strategies to get satisfaction from trusted and valued sources of acknowledgment. Reduce the chances of successful attacks and get satisfaction from trusted and valued sources to access the best featured and guaranteed sources. Manage your security risks at the best levels and do not show your negligence to obtain the best security risks to escape from data theft issues.

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