Phishing attack

Phishing is a social engineering tactic where attackers pose as a trusted entity (bank, employer, service provider) to trick victims into revealing credentials, installing malware, or taking harmful actions. Commonly delivered via fraudulent emails or messages with malicious links or attachments, phishing remains one of the most widespread ways to steal credentials or infect systems.

How does it affect identity security?
Even the best technical defenses fail if a user is deceived into handing over passwords or MFA tokens. Phishing is often the first step in targeted breaches—once attackers have valid credentials, they can masquerade as legitimate users.

Cloud accounts are prime phishing targets—Office 365, G Suite, or AWS admin logins yield huge payoffs. Identity security in the cloud means continuous user education, advanced threat detection (checking email link reputations), and MFA on admin portals. Cloud IAM solutions also help detect suspicious sign-ins from unusual locations or times. Single sign-on plus conditional access can force extra checks if a login attempt looks risky. Ultimately, even in the cloud, phishing can circumvent perimeter defenses if humans are tricked.

Organizations fight phishing by combining user education, robust email filters, and identity security measures like MFA (so stolen passwords alone aren’t enough).

Case study

Shark Tank’ investor Barbara Corcoran was duped by a spear-phishing email into wiring $400k to scammers. Quick bank action partly mitigated losses, but it underscored how easily even savvy individuals can be deceived.

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