cloudHQ

Helping your productivity, 1 click at a time.

  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Log in Sign up
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • Featured Apps
    • Export Emails to Google Sheets
    • Export Emails to Google Docs
    • Gmail Email Templates
    • Save Emails To PDF
    • Multi Email Forward
    • Email Campaigns and Mail Merge
  • Productivity
    • Auto Follow Up for Gmail
    • AutoBCC for Gmail
    • Email Signature Generator
    • Free Email Tracker
    • Free HTML Editor for Gmail
    • Free Screencast recording for Gmail
    • Gmail Label and Email Sharing
    • Gmail Phone
    • Gmail Screenshot
    • Gmail SMS Text Alerts
  • Google Workspace
    • Gmail
    • Google Apps
    • Google Docs
    • Google Sheets
    • Google Slides
    • Google Drive
    • Google Shared Drives
    • Google Contacts
  • Categories
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud Computing
    • Dropbox
    • Education
    • Egnyte
    • Google Chrome Web Store
    • More ...

DANGER: How to Spot Common Phishing Attacks

cloudHQ · DANGER: How to Spot Common Phishing Attacks

Those of us in the U.S. have been hearing a lot about “hacked” emails lately.

But in fact it appears the now-infamous John Podesta email hack wasn’t a “hack” at all.

It was a phishing attack. And Podesta and his staff fell for it.

 

cloudhq_phishing_1_feature


 

What Is a Phishing Attack?

Phishing is “the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

In Podesta’s case, attackers sent him an email that appeared to come from Google. It warned that someone in the Ukraine had obtained his personal Gmail password. It then included a link to a website with instructions to “change your password immediately.”

Podesta, to his credit, forwarded the email to an IT staffer. The staffer mistakenly identified the email as legitimate and wrote back to direct Podesta to change his password.

Presumably, Podesta then clicked the link and entered his login information, which handed over the keys to his email account to his phishing attackers.

The rest, as we know, is history.

Protecting Yourself from Phishing Attacks

Whatever your political leanings, you do not want to be in Podesta’s situation.

That’s why you need to be on the lookout for common methods used in modern phishing attacks.

Phishing attacks are always trying to deceive you into giving up personal information.

Here’s what you might see:

1. A Google Phishing Attack

Phishing attacks related to Google services are common.

In the image below, you’ll see an phishing email attempting to steal a person’s Google login and password information.

This is a common phishing attack. If you click the button, the hackers will ask you to enter your username and password into a bogus login site. If you do, they’ll have full access to all your Google services, as what happened to Podesta:

 

cloudhq_phishing_2_google


 

2. A LinkedIn Phishing Attack

Below is another example, this one is attempting to steal a LinkedIn login and password information:

 

cloudhq_phishing_3_linkedin

Photo credit: PC World


 

5 Signs That You’re Looking at a Phishing Attempt

Here are a few signs that can alert you to a phishing attack:

  • Bogus “From” Email Address – Look closely at the from email address of the Google phishing email: “en@viega.ch.” That’s obviously not a valid email for Google.
  • Urgent Action Required – Many phishing emails urge you to take action right away. The Podesta attack, for example, claimed that someone had already stolen Podesta’s account information.
  • Link to a Fake Website – Take a look at the link in any email you receive by email. Hover over links and buttons if you can. You can often spot bizarre phishing links this way.
  • Any Mention of Your Password – Most services will not ask you to log in with your password by clicking link in your email. If someone asks for your login information and password, be wary.
  • Any Unsolicited Offer of Payment – If someone you don’t know promises you payment via email, that’s almost certainly a phishing attack of some kind. The old adage is true: if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

What To Do If You’ve Been Hacked

If hackers gain access to any of your accounts, they can do more than just download them (as they did with Podesta).

They could also move, change, or delete any of the information you have stored in the cloud, just like you would normally be able to.

This is another reason why a failover solution is so critical for any businesses using cloud storage solutions.

Failover creates a permanent backup of all your files and communications in a completely separate platform, one that will be inaccessible to your phishing attackers.

For example, if your phishing attackers obtained access to your Google account, all your information would be safely stored on another platform like Microsoft Office 365 Mail or Dropbox if you enabled a failover plan.

Failover is simple to use, affordable, and can be set up in just a few minutes.

You can find more information about failover here, and you can set up a solution for your files right now at our getting started page.

 

Protect Your Files
 

Posted On: 11/15/2016By: selim Dizdar

Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Google Workspace Tagged With: failover, phishing

View AMP version

Footer

cloudHQ Backup, Migration & Sync
cloudHQ Backup, Migration & Sync product can sync, back up, copy, migrate, convert, and replicates data between different cloud service providers.
GET STARTED
cloudHQ Apps

We all hate email, but still, spend most of our day there. Because of that, we created over 60 Gmail productivity tools to help keep you be productive in the email.
All cloudHQ Apps
Contact Us
  • Contact
  • Terms Of Service
  • Privacy
  • Security
  • Table of Content
Subscribe
©2025 cloudHQ - All Rights Reserved.

Categories

  • Amazon S3 (5)
  • Artificial Intelligence (33)
  • Auto Follow Up for Gmail (1)
  • Cloud Computing (213)
  • cloudHQ Apps (433)
    • Attach and Embed YouTube Video in Gmail (2)
    • Auto Follow Up for Gmail (6)
    • auto gmail follow up (4)
    • AutoBCC for Gmail (8)
    • chatgpt for Gmail (13)
    • ChatGPT for Google (1)
    • ChatGPT Sidebar (2)
    • Convert Google Docs To Gmail Drafts (1)
    • Display Email Time by cloudHQ (1)
    • Email List Builder (20)
    • Email Privacy Protector: Is My Email Tracked? (4)
    • Email Reply Status (1)
    • Email Sender Icons (1)
    • Email Signature Generator (19)
    • Email Templates for Outlook and Gmail (11)
    • Email Tracking Blocker (2)
    • Email Zoom text Reader (2)
    • Export Emails to Google Docs (7)
    • Export Emails to Google Sheets (55)
    • Formatted Email Subject Lines (4)
    • Free Email Tracker (20)
    • Free HTML Editor for Gmail (3)
    • Free Mail Tracker (5)
    • Free Pause Gmail (4)
    • Free Screencast recording for Gmail (11)
    • Get My Receipts (1)
    • Gmail Auto Label (4)
    • Gmail Button (5)
    • Gmail Conversation Thread Reversal (1)
      • Gmail conversation view (1)
    • Gmail Copilot (8)
    • Gmail Email Links (3)
    • Gmail Email Templates (89)
    • Gmail Free Online Polls & Surveys by cloudHQ (4)
    • Gmail Inbox Zero (1)
    • Gmail Label and Email Sharing (25)
    • Gmail Message Preview (1)
    • Gmail Notes (3)
    • Gmail Phone (2)
    • Gmail Screenshot (13)
    • Gmail SMS Text Alerts (12)
    • gmail snippets (2)
    • Gmail Tables (3)
    • Gmail Tabs (5)
    • Gmail Time Tracker (3)
    • Gmail URL Link Preview (5)
    • Gmail Web Clipper (1)
    • Google Docs Templates (15)
    • Google Forms Templates (2)
    • Google Slides Theme Templates (1)
    • Happy Mother's Day Cards (5)
    • Highlight Emails in Gmail (1)
    • Hubspot Templates in Gmail (1)
    • MailKing Email Campaigns and Mail Merge (65)
    • mailking: send mass text from email text message SMS marketing campaigns (16)
    • mailto: (1)
    • meeting scheduler (32)
    • Multi Email Forward (7)
    • Multi Email Forward for Gmail (21)
    • Resize Gmail Sidebar (2)
    • save and backup my emails (1)
    • Save Emails To Box (2)
    • Save Emails To Dropbox (3)
    • Save Emails To Egnyte (3)
    • Save Emails To Google Drive (8)
    • Save Emails To OneDrive (2)
    • Save Emails To OneDrive Business (2)
    • Save Emails To OneNote (2)
    • Save Emails To PDF (43)
    • Save Emails To Salesforce (3)
    • Save Emails To SharePoint (6)
    • Save My Email (1)
    • Save My Emails (3)
    • Send Your Email to SMS (text) (6)
    • Share & Attach Files In Gmail (2)
    • Simple email view (4)
    • Sort Gmail inbox by (5)
    • Sync Google Drive With Dropbox (3)
    • Sync Salesforce Contacts To Google (2)
    • Tiny Sketchbook (3)
    • Unique URL Links for Email Conversations (4)
    • Valentines Day (2)
    • Video Email (9)
  • cybersecurity (1)
  • Dropbox (73)
  • Education (7)
  • Egnyte (9)
  • Email Templates Gmail (4)
  • Email Templates Outlook (4)
  • Google Chrome Web Store (4)
  • Google Sheets Templates (3)
  • Google Workspace (194)
    • Gmail (68)
    • Google AI (3)
    • Google Apps (40)
    • Google Contacts (1)
    • Google Docs (56)
    • Google Drive (73)
    • Google Shared Drives (1)
    • Google Sheets (17)
    • Google Slides (9)
  • Happy Easter Cards (1)
  • HTML editor for Google Drive (1)
  • Microsoft 365 (3)
  • microsoft sharepoint (2)
  • Mobile Text Alerts for Gmail (1)
  • Outlook Email Templates (4)
  • Productivity (1)
  • technology (1)
  • Text Editor for Google Drive (1)