What is Clone Phishing in Cyber Security?

Clone phishing in cyber security is a phishing attack in which a real and previously delivered email is “cloned for bad motivations. For clone phishing emails, hackers replace the original links or attachments with malicious ones. The definition of clone phishing varies, but the idea behind this attack is to copy a real email and attack the target users.

Hackers now use phishing clones to steal credentials or download malware on your computer. Imagine you get an email from Twitter saying someone wants to reset your password. Imagine receiving an email from Twitter stating that someone wants to reset your password. Clone phishing is a cyberattack where attackers duplicate legitimate emails or websites to deceive recipients into revealing sensitive information or installing malware. This method poses significant risks across financial, operational, and reputational domains.

In 2024, Australian organizations reported nearly $80 million in losses due to email compromises and online bank frauds, with clone phishing being a prevalent tactic.

A study revealed that 31% of organizations experienced network outages or downtime following cyber incidents involving phishing attacks, including clone phishing.

In 2024, UK engineering firm Arup suffered a $25 million loss from a deepfake video conference scam, a sophisticated form of clone phishing, leading to significant reputational harm and the resignation of its East Asia chair.

These examples underscore the critical need for robust cybersecurity measures to mitigate the multifaceted impacts of clone phishing attacks.

Why is Clone Phishing Effective

Clone phishing's effectiveness lies in its method and deception skills. By copying real email content, phishing attacks trick people and protect users from obvious phishing attempts. The email appears familiar and is from a trustworthy source. This causes people to overlook minor discrepancies and comply with the sender's requests, even if they are harmful.

How Does Clone Phishing Work

As we defined clone phishing meaning at the beginning of our post, clone phishing attacks trick people into thinking they are safe by using a fake email that looks real.

Here's a detailed breakdown of how clone phishing attacks work:

Table 1: See the detailed breakdown of how clone phishing attacks work

How Do Hackers Clone Emails?

Attackers perform phishing clone through the following steps:

• Choosing the Right Email: Attackers first choose the emails they will use for their targets. These emails are usually the emails of people the targets trust. You can use a reliable transaction confirmation, update notification, or similar emails in this selection.
• Email Cloning: It creates an almost exact copy of the selected email. The email's design, style, and tone are the same as the original but contain harmful links or attachments.
• Links and Attachments: In the fake clone email, the sender replaces links or attachments with malicious ones. Thus, hackers can steal personal information and install malicious software.
• Sender Address Spoofing: The attacker spoofs the real sender's email address to make the recipients believe it is from a source they trust.
• Deployment: The cloned email is sent to the target people.

What Does Clone Phishing Look Like?

Clone phishing emails look exactly like the real ones we trust. But, if you look closely, you might see small clues that something's off. For example, the email address might differ slightly from the usual one. Or, the email might ask you to do something urgent or strange, which seems out of place.

Also, if you hover over a link, the web address that pops up might not match what the link text says. These emails usually want you to click a link, download something, or give away personal info. They take advantage of how much we trust the person or company that supposedly sent the email.

3 Common Clone Phishing Examples

Here are three typical clone phishing examples you might come across:

• Invoice Revisions: Imagine you get an email that looks like it's from a company you buy stuff from. It says there's a mistake with the bill they sent before. This email looks legitimate and tells you to send your payment again to a new bank account, but this belongs to hackers. This is one of the clone phishing examples that hackers use in 2024.
• Account Verification Requests: This one's pretty sneaky. You get an email that seems like it's from your bank. Or an online service you use. Asking you to click a link to confirm your account details. But the link takes you to a fake site.
• Software Update Alerts: Ever get a notification saying you need to update some software on your computer or phone? Phish clones can make a fake email look like it's genuinely from a tech company you trust, telling you to download an update. Clicking the link or downloading the file will result in getting a virus or harmful software. Hackers use this software to tamper with your belongings.

How to Prevent Clone Phishing

We need to mix some smart tech tricks with learning cool stuff to keep clone phishing attacks away. Here’s what you can do to prevent phishing clone attacks:

• Get Good Email Filters: Use tech to spot fake emails trying to trick us. It keeps the bad ones away.
• Learn Lots About Safety: Everyone should get the lowdown on how tricky these fake emails can be. Learn to spot the fakes and tell someone when you see them.
• Double Security with MFA: Add an extra security step with MFA. Even if a bad guy gets your password, they can only get in with this extra code.
• Check Out Weird Emails: Double-check if an email looks weird. Call or message the real company or person (but not with the email's contact info) to see if it's legit.
• Update Your Stuff: Ensure all your apps and security are up-to-date. Hackers love to sneak through old, unfixed security holes.
• Practice with a Phishing Simulator: Use a phishing simulation tool that pretends to send you fake phishing emails. It’s a safe way to practice spotting the fakes without any real danger.
• Take a Cyber Security Awareness Training: Use special security awareness training software that teaches you about staying safe online. It’s like a game that teaches you how to beat the hackers at their own game.

Check out this YouTube video to learn what cyber security phishing and clone phishing are.

Also, check out our YouTube video and see how the phishing simulator tool works with a comprehensive library of phishing templates.

Editor's Note: This blog was updated on December 3, 2024.