Security News > 2020 > July > Watch out for these subject lines in email phishing attacks
Email phishing attacks work by spoofing or referencing well-known topics that the attackers hope will arouse fear or concern or interest on the part of the recipients.
To compile its "Q2 2020 Top-Clicked Phishing Report," KnowBe4 examined tens of thousands of email subject lines from simulated phishing tests as well as "In-the-wild" email messages that employees received and reported to their IT departments as suspicious.
The templates for the simulated phishing tests, which organizations use to help educate employees, were based on real phishing attacks.
Email phishing attacks with subjects related to COVID-19 remained prevalent last quarter, accounting for 56% of all the subject lines analyzed.
Phishing attacks that exploited Facebook used such subject lines as "Your Friend Tagged a Photo of You" and "Your friend tagged you in photos on Facebook." Campaigns spoofing Twitter tried to entice people with a subject line of "Someone has sent you a Direct Message on Twitter."
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