Phishing Attacks That A Digital Marketer Should Be Aware Of

Phishing Attacks That A Digital Marketer Should Be Aware Of

Phishing Attacks That A Digital Marketer Should Be Aware Of

As a digital marketer when you start an email campaign, there is a chance that many people might think it as a fraud mail and might not open it. Company’s site will be injected with malicious links. Sometimes your clients receive an email in the name of your company, and you should solve those issues. So marketers should be aware of below said phishing attacks.

What is phishing?

Phishing is the deceiving and unlawful attempt to collect the personal information of the user. This technique is done by using fraud emails and websites. Phishing technique is old and followed in the 1990s and still followed now.

There is a significant increase in cyber attacks every year. The growing technology and moving towards digitalization made India rank to number 4 among the list of top 10 targeted countries for phishing attacks. There are many types of phishing attacks, and Digital Marketers should be aware of:-

1.Spear phishing:-

In phishing, the attacker sends emails (or other communication) to the most number of people possible to collect their personal information. But in spear phishing technique, they target a specific person and gather the details of that person. Then they modify the data according to that person. They send mail disguised as a company that the victim is familiar with. They make it look legitimate so that the victim clicks on it. These messages also contain the explanations on why they need your information. As it is a more personal level, it is difficult to identify who the attacker was.

So as a digital marketer you need to make your mail look more legitimate and get sponsored from a famous face. To fight spear phishing scams, marketers need to be aware of the threats. Besides education, a technology that focuses on email security is essential.

2.Session hijacking:-

Before understanding the session hijacking, let’s know the definition of a session.

Web Session:- Web session is the temporary connection between server and client for information exchange. In this, the information gets stored on the server side. Every user is given a unique session ID for each visit, and this prevents information mixing between users. The session begins when the user login to the website and ends when the user closes the site.

In this phishing technique scammers steal the session ID and gets unauthorized access to the web server. They are capable of intercepting a session and obtaining users information. This process is known as session hijacking. We can detect a session hijacking by the response of the website. If the site does not respond according to the user inputs or if it doesn’t work for an unknown reason, it can be a sign of a session hijacking attack.

As a digital marketer, you need to get an SSL certificate for your company’s website. Nowadays users are aware of unsecured and spam pages. Your site traffic and conversions depend on the trust you give to the users. You also need to have a privacy policy page for your company’s site.

3.Content Injection:-

In this phishing technique, phishers can hack a site and inject some content into the website. That content might contain some malicious links, and when clicked on it, users get redirected to a new page where they ask the user to fill their information. Sometimes you observe some text gets added in the URL and when user visits page it shows an error. Then they mislead users by asking them to visit a link. The redirected page might seem legit to the users. This information given by the user will go to the phisher.

So a digital marketer needs to check the website for the content added or the malicious links and clear them.

4. Search Engine Phishing:-

In this phishing technique, the attacker creates fake landing pages or web pages and mislead users.

This phishing technique can be in any form such as

Job offers:- They say that a company is hiring and they ask the user to submit his information. They make it look legit as they send under a big company’s name.

Free/Discount offers:- Here the user is attracted with some fantastic offers and will ask him to buy a product. Before buying he will ask the user to fill a form. In this technique, the attacker gets money as well as information.

Emergency:- In this, the phisher targets the users by saying that the bank details should be renewed and gives a link to fill a form.

So a digital marketer needs to find if they start these on your company’s name and remove them. You should also advise the company to provide an email to users in these cases so that they can contact the company directly and block that ad according to the details given by the user.

5. Ransomware:-

It is malicious software that will be installed on the computer when they click on an unauthorized link. In this phishing technique, the user will be asked to submit his details or pay money to gain access to the website. Nowadays phishers have become more professional, and users cannot identify the malware, and then they click on the link giving access to the hacker.

Keep your OS updated to update the security features.

Never install the unknown software and give access to it.

Install the anti-virus software so that your system will not get affected by malware.

Back up the files and try to keep fewer records on the system.

Suggestions to the clients:-

Careful with the information you put on the internet

Do not use the same password for all the accounts

Do not click unknown emails. Though you know it, use some logic while opening it

Use data protection and anti-spamming tools

Do not pay or give any bank details to any individual


Digital marketers should be aware of all phishing techniques. Let the customers know the email ID that they receive emails from the company. Most importantly SSL certificates are essential to your site. Online activities are increasing day by day, and so safety should be among your main objectives for the customers.

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