Many of the security threats that we receive in our day to day arrive through a simple email. Malware, viruses, Phishing attacks can sneak in to steal our passwords … Without a doubt, it is one of the most important sources of cyber problems. Now, many users tend to believe that this only happens when they receive an e-mail from a stranger. However, in this article we are going to explain why an email from a friend or relative can be the most dangerous.
Hackers use trusted emails to attack
As we say, e-mail is one of the most used sources of attacks by hackers. They use different techniques to steal passwords, information, sneak ransomware, and other varieties. They usually use addresses that at a glance we can suspect that something is wrong. For example they may have a very long name with meaningless mixed letters and numbers. It is clearly seen that it is not a legitimate e-mail.
However, with the passage of time, cybercriminals have perfected their techniques. They use more sophisticated emails , more realistic to say the least. But even more, the biggest problem comes when they use an address that is familiar to the victim.
The most dangerous is when an attacker uses the e-mail of a friend or relative of the user to attack . Why is this happening? If we receive an email from a known contact, we are more likely to open it and even access a link or download a file, than if we receive the same from an unknown address.
This is used by attackers to gain the trust of the victim. They can achieve their goal more likely. Therefore, the most dangerous thing in this regard is receiving an email from a known contact. Overconfidence can lead us to fall into the trap.
What we discussed could happen if an attacker has previously accessed an email address illegitimately and subsequently sent a message to contacts. This is something that can reach many hypothetical victims in a short space of time.
But it could also happen if that attacker has created a fake email , pretending to be someone they are not. You have previously been able to obtain information from that person through social networks and other services on the Internet. You can use social engineering to create realistic-looking content to reach your victims.
Protect email, password
All this means that protecting our email , not falling into possible traps, can help us avoid problems. We could be facing attempted attacks that jeopardize the proper functioning of our equipment and harm our security. We leave you an article with the techniques of attacks by e-mail.
Common sense is always going to be fundamental. It is vital to recognize potential fraudulent e-mails, even those we receive from trusted sources. We do not really know if it has been attacked previously.
It is also very important to have security tools . A good antivirus, as well as other varieties of software that help us protect ourselves, will be essential to avoid problems.
On the other hand, having the systems updated correctly will also be of great help. There are many occasions when vulnerabilities arise that can be exploited by hackers to carry out their attacks. We must always install the latest patches.