Spoofing vs Phishing

Introduction

Phishing and Spoofing are two famous cyberattacks that attackers use to thieve critical information about an individual. Cybercriminals use Spoofing and Phishing attacks to exploit the emails, phone calls, and messages of the target. This Spoofing vs. Phishing blog discusses the differences between phishing and spoofing and preventing them.

Spoofing is a computer virus attack where individual thieves the details of a legal user and serves as another person. Phishing is a form of social engineering attack where an attacker thieves the critical information of the user in an imposter way by masking as a legal user. 

However, most emails that seem spoofed or phishing are automatically identified as ignored and spam; it is still essential to recognize the difference between spoofing and phishing. In this Spoofing vs. Phishing blog, you will learn about these two kinds of cyberattacks, the differences between them, and identify them.

What is Spoofing?

Spoofing is defined as an attack where an untrustworthy or unknown kind of interaction is pretended as the legal source. This kind of attack intends to make users reveal their personal information. Sometimes phishing may involve some form of spoofing for making the attack look legal; other types of cyberattacks may also involve spoofing to hide the source of the attack; Homographs and DDoS attacks are examples of such attacks. Following are the different kinds of Spoofing:

1) Email Spoofing: We perform the email spoofing when the attacker makes “from address” in the email appear legal. Business and Phishing email accords frequently incorporate this kind of spoofing. Generally, Email spoofing intends to attack a user’s device through malware, request money, or thieve their information.

2) Caller ID Spoofing:  We carry out Caller ID Spoofing when the phone number is tricked into appearing like a trusted or the local phone number to make victims reveal their data. This kind of spoofing is regularly utilized in the ongoing calls, and robocalls from unknown numbers are received regularly.

3) Website Spoofing: Website spoofing is done when cybercriminals establish fake websites that appear legal but may try to thieve sensitive data or can be malware-laced. 

4) IP Spoofing: Cybercriminals utilize IP spoofing to hide Internet Protocol(IP) addresses. We can also use it to pose as another computer system and conceal the real identity of the transmitter. We can use it in DDoS attacks to hide the source of malicious traffic.

5) DNS Server Spoofing: DNS Server spoofing is used when the attackers redirect the traffic to a different IP address and move to the website that disseminates malware.

Examples of Spoofing

• When the complete website is attacked by modifying the site’s IP address.
• A website with the look of a banking website that requests the login, but it is the way to fetch our account information.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is defined as the social engineering technique that includes utilizing emails designed to appear legal but aimed to deceive the users into pressing the malicious link with the attachment linked with the malware. Cybercriminals utilize this method for acquiring sensitive or personal data like login credentials or debit card numbers. Phishing attack mainly intends to attract the target into disclosing personal information. Following are the types of phishing:

1) Phone Phishing: This kind of Phishing is performed using the phone.

2) Email Phishing: The attacker utilizes emails for attacks online.

3) Spear Phishing: An advanced phishing attack where a damaging email is transmitted to a particular target.

4) Clone Phishing: This Phishing is a whaling attack aimed at a firm's senior chiefs.

5) Smishing and Vishing: It is the kind of Phishing that includes the utilization of text messages is smishing, while vishing is performed using telephonic conversations.

6) Angler Phishing: It is performed using social media and thieves the data placed on the platform or ploys the users into disclosing sensitive data.

Examples of Phishing

• When the email asks the users to check their data by clicking on the link.
• “Click Here” is the general term utilized in those emails.
• Emails or Phone calls displayed from the bank requesting PIN, Password, or OTP.
• An email alleging that a specific payment made by you has failed.
• When the user is led to a counterfeit website, they visit the bank’s web address in the browser.
• When the DNS of the user’s routers is modified without their knowledge.

Differences between Spoofing and Phishing

• Objective: The main objective of Phishing is to extract critical personal data of the receiver while Spoofing aims to steal the identity of someone.

• Subset: Spoofing is defined as the subset of Phishing because regularly attackers online steal the identity of the legal user before doing the phishing fraud. Though, Phishing does not exist in Spoofing.

• Nature of Scam: Spoofing is not fraud as the attacker is not using the phone number or email id of a victim, and no data is theft. Phishing is a kind of online fraud or scam as data theft is done.

• Types: Phishing types are vishing, smishing, email phishing, spear phishing, clone phishing, angler phishing, and phone phishing. Spoofing types include caller ID spoofing, DNS server spoofing, email spoofing, IP spoofing, and website spoofing.

• Method: Phishing does not include the fraud software utilization and is performed through social engineering methodologies. In the spoofing, vicious software is installed on the intended computer.

Preventing Phishing Attacks

Following are some measures to prevent phishing attacks:

• Before pressing the links obtained using emails, hover on the link to double-click the destination.
• Delete the suspicious emails that include the subject lines such as “Must Act Now” or emails or “Hurry” that include misspellings within the message body that appears unprofessional.
• Open attachments that are from reliable sources only.
• When you are doubtful, always attempt to invoke the sender to check whether the email was from them or not.

Preventing Spoofing Attacks

Preventing Spoofing attacks include closing attention to the details of the communication:

• Verify for spelling errors in URLs, webpages, or emails.
• Be alert to the grammatical errors in the content of the communication.
• Give great attention to the odd sentence phrasing or sentence structure.

The above signs indicate that phone calls, web pages, emails, or other forms of communication are spoofed.

Conclusion:

As Cybersecurity is evolving, cybercriminals are altering the techniques they incorporate spoofing and phishing into their strategies. So, it is crucial to stay alert by keeping security as your priority. I hope this blog is sufficient for getting a depth understanding of phishing and spoofing attacks.