Phishing Emails Aren't as Obvious Anymore. Here's How to Spot Them

We've all seen those emails pushing amazing offers that seem too good to be true, dire warnings that your computer has been compromised, or even threats of jail time if you don't pay your back taxes right away. Those are all common pitches from online scammers trying to get you to panic and click on a link you shouldn't, hand over money or personal information, or download an attachment that turns out to be a computer virus. But new research shows that those common pitches may have just become too common to be effective, leading more cybercriminals to take a different approach. Kendall McKay, strategic lead for cyber threat intelligence at Cisco's Talos division, says that for a long time, phishing emails featured attention-grabbing subject lines that included phrases like "urgent request" or "payment overdue," but many of the phishing emails spotted by Cisco's systems last year included relatively benign subject line terms like "request," "forward" and "report." "They probably kno ... Read full article.