In order to make a phishing attack more reliable and effective, hackers and malicious actors usually need to impersonate a trusted enterprise because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making users more likely to click on the dangerous links that they receive. It’s hard to find a company that is more visible than Facebook, and while it might not be trusted all that much from a consumer privacy standpoint most users assume that its emails are safe enough to interact with.
While Microsoft used to be the most commonly impersonated brand in previous years, Facebook took the top spot in 2021, as highlighted by Vadesecure in its report. This might add even more trust issues to the platform which is already facing a crisis due to numerous controversies that it only has itself to blame for. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this situation might not actually be Facebook’s fault, since phishers usually use big name brands and Facebook is just one of them.
Social media platforms in general are popular choices for phishing attacks because of the high level of likelihood that people would be willing to click links that they find on them. According to a report from KnowBe4, LinkedIn is also becoming an increasingly common choice for phishing attacks and the like, and this indicates that consumers need to be a great deal more cautious when they are clicking on various links that might have been sent to them via email.
Another thing to note is that social media platforms themselves have become common places for phishing attacks to occur. People often add individuals that they don’t know in real life on their social media accounts, and this makes it easier for malicious actors to send phishing links their way. A lot of work needs to be done in order to educate consumers about how they can protect themselves from the numerous phishing attacks that they might be faced with. Lack of knowledge is the main reason why phishing is so common these days.
Read next: This Android Antivirus Actually Contains Malware
While Microsoft used to be the most commonly impersonated brand in previous years, Facebook took the top spot in 2021, as highlighted by Vadesecure in its report. This might add even more trust issues to the platform which is already facing a crisis due to numerous controversies that it only has itself to blame for. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this situation might not actually be Facebook’s fault, since phishers usually use big name brands and Facebook is just one of them.
Social media platforms in general are popular choices for phishing attacks because of the high level of likelihood that people would be willing to click links that they find on them. According to a report from KnowBe4, LinkedIn is also becoming an increasingly common choice for phishing attacks and the like, and this indicates that consumers need to be a great deal more cautious when they are clicking on various links that might have been sent to them via email.
Another thing to note is that social media platforms themselves have become common places for phishing attacks to occur. People often add individuals that they don’t know in real life on their social media accounts, and this makes it easier for malicious actors to send phishing links their way. A lot of work needs to be done in order to educate consumers about how they can protect themselves from the numerous phishing attacks that they might be faced with. Lack of knowledge is the main reason why phishing is so common these days.
Read next: This Android Antivirus Actually Contains Malware