How to Prevent Phishing Attacks: Netcraft Attack Recovery Guide

Phishing remains one of the most persistent and costly threats facing large organizations. Industry reports consistently show that phishing plays a role in the majority of enterprise breaches, with the average cost of a successful phishing-driven incident reaching millions of dollars once downtime, remediation, regulatory exposure, and reputational damage are accounted for. 

Today’s phishing attacks are no longer limited to poorly written emails. Threat actors increasingly use AI-generated content, multi-channel delivery across email, SMS, voice, and social platforms, and highly targeted impersonation of trusted brands and internal executives.  

This guide outlines phishing prevention best practices, how to recognize common threats, and how organizations can strengthen defenses using enterprise-grade tools and specialized anti-phishing partners.

What Is a Phishing Attack?

A phishing attack is a form of social engineering that uses fraudulent communications to deceive recipients into revealing sensitive information, deploying malware, or authorizing unauthorized transactions. These messages typically impersonate trusted entities such as well-known brands, internal executives, or service providers to appear legitimate.

Phishing attacks rely on deceptive links, malicious attachments, and urgency-driven language to pressure recipients into acting quickly. While individuals are frequent targets, enterprise phishing attacks carry significantly higher stakes. Successful campaigns can lead to data breaches, ransomware infections, financial fraud, and long-term damage to brand reputation.

Increasingly, attackers also target organizations indirectly by impersonating trusted brands to exploit their customers. These brand impersonation campaigns create downstream risk, overwhelming support teams and eroding customer trust even when internal systems are not directly compromised.

Common Types of Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks take many forms, each posing distinct risks to enterprises:

Email phishing remains the most common vector. These large-scale campaigns impersonate trusted organizations, cloud services, or internal departments to harvest credentials or distribute malware.

Spear phishing targets specific employees using tailored messaging informed by publicly available data or prior reconnaissance. Finance, HR, and IT teams are frequent targets.

Whaling focuses on high-value individuals such as C-suite executives, exploiting authority and urgency to bypass internal controls.

Smishing (SMS phishing) uses text messages to deliver malicious links or payment demands, often bypassing traditional email security tools.

Vishing (voice phishing) involves phone-based social engineering, frequently combined with phishing email or SMS to reinforce legitimacy.

Clone phishing replicates legitimate emails but replaces links or attachments with malicious versions.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) impersonates executives, vendors, or partners to authorize fraudulent wire transfers or invoice payments, often without malware involved.

How to Recognize a Phishing Attempt

Recognizing phishing attempts requires both technical awareness and user vigilance. Common indicators include suspicious email sender addresses with subtle misspellings or unexpected domains, generic greetings that lack personalization, and messages designed to create urgency or fear, such as warnings about account suspension or missed payments.

Requests for sensitive information or unusual actions, including credential entry or wire transfers, should always raise concern. While grammatical errors and inconsistent branding were once reliable red flags, AI-generated phishing content has significantly improved attacker quality, making visual inspection alone insufficient.

Mismatched or obfuscated URLs are another common signal. Links may appear legitimate but redirect to malicious domains designed to harvest credentials. Training employees to recognize these patterns remains important, but detection must be supported by automated technical controls that operate continuously.

What to Do If You’ve Been Phished

When a phishing incident occurs, a structured incident response helps limit impact and restore control quickly.

1. Contain the threat.

Immediately isolate affected systems, revoke compromised credentials, and block malicious domains, IP addresses, or email senders to prevent further spread.

2. Assess the scope.

Determine which users, data, or systems were accessed. Identify whether credentials were misused, malware was deployed, or financial transactions were initiated.

3. Notify stakeholders.

Alert internal security teams and leadership, and notify affected customers and regulatory bodies where required by law or policy.

4. Report the attack.

Submit indicators of compromise to industry organizations such as the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), relevant law enforcement agencies, and trusted anti-phishing partners.

5. Conduct a post-incident review.

Analyze root causes, identify gaps in controls, and update policies, tooling, or training to strengthen defenses.

6. Communicate transparently.

Provide timely, accurate updates to maintain customer confidence and protect brand trust.

Having a documented incident response plan in place before an attack occurs enables faster, more effective action when phishing incidents arise.

Use Anti-Phishing Tools and Browser Protection

Enterprise-grade anti-phishing tools form the foundation of effective prevention. Real-time phishing detection powered by threat intelligence enables organizations to identify malicious domains, URLs, and campaigns as they emerge. Browser extensions and DNS filtering help block access to known phishing sites before users can interact with them.

Automated takedown services are equally critical. Removing phishing sites that impersonate your brand reduces exposure for both employees and customers. Threat intelligence feeds integrated into SIEM and SOAR platforms further enhance visibility and response coordination.

Netcraft delivers phishing detection and disruption services at global scale, identifying and taking down threats rapidly across domains, social platforms, and hosting infrastructure. Teams can easily report any threats they find directly to Netcraft.

Proactive monitoring protects organizations and their customers from brand impersonation campaigns, while rapid takedowns minimize exposure and downstream damage.

Verify Links and Attachments Before Clicking

Safe behavior remains an essential control layer. Employees should be trained to hover over links to inspect destination URLs before clicking and to watch for typosquatting and lookalike domains designed to mimic legitimate brands. Unexpected attachments, especially executable files or macro-enabled documents, should be treated with caution.

Organizations should provide URL scanning and sandboxing tools to safely analyze suspicious links and attachments. For high-risk requests such as payment changes or wire transfers, employees should verify legitimacy through a secondary channel, such as a phone call to a known contact. Individual vigilance is most effective when supported by strong organizational defenses and clear verification processes.

Strengthen Email Security

Email infrastructure security plays a central role in phishing prevention. AI-powered spam and phishing filters help quarantine suspicious messages before they reach inboxes. However, authentication protocols are equally important.

SPF validates authorized sending servers, DKIM cryptographically verifies message integrity, and DMARC enforces policy and reporting. Configuring DMARC to “quarantine” or “reject” is essential to prevent domain spoofing and protect brand identity.

These controls defend against inbound threats while also preventing attackers from impersonating your organization in outbound phishing campaigns. Organizations can explore Netcraft’s Brand Protection Solutions to understand how external monitoring complements email security controls.

Enable Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a critical safeguard against credential compromise. Even if attackers successfully harvest usernames and passwords, MFA prevents account access without a second verification factor.

Phishing-resistant MFA methods such as hardware security keys and FIDO2 authentication offer stronger protection than SMS-based one-time passwords. MFA should be mandatory for high-risk systems, including email, VPNs, administrative consoles, and financial platforms.

Optional MFA leaves gaps attackers will exploit. Enforcing MFA across the organization significantly reduces the impact of successful phishing attempts.

Keep Software and Systems Updated

Attackers frequently exploit known vulnerabilities in outdated software. Timely patching closes these gaps and reduces attack surface. Email clients, browsers, operating systems, and security tools should be prioritized for updates.

Automated patch management helps ensure consistency at scale, while endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions provide visibility into threats that bypass perimeter defenses. Outdated systems remain one of the easiest entry points for attackers and should be treated as a high-priority risk.

Employee Training

A security-aware culture strengthens every technical control. Regular training should be tailored to role-specific risks, with finance, HR, and executive teams receiving focused guidance. Simulated phishing exercises reinforce learning and provide measurable insight into organizational readiness.

Clear reporting mechanisms are essential. Employees should be encouraged to report suspicious messages without fear of blame, enabling faster response and broader protection. Preventing phishing attacks is not solely an IT responsibility. Cross-departmental collaboration improves outcomes.

Leadership engagement matters. When executives model good security awareness behavior, it reinforces organizational priorities. Training reduces risk but cannot eliminate it entirely, making technical defenses and expert partnerships essential complements.

Conclusion

Phishing attack prevention requires a layered strategy that combines technical controls, employee training, and expert partnerships. No single solution can address the full spectrum of modern phishing scams and threats. Defense in depth remains essential.

For enterprises, the business case is clear. Effective phishing prevention protects sensitive data, reduces financial loss, safeguards customers, and preserves brand reputation. As phishing tactics continue to evolve, organizations must work with specialists who actively track, disrupt, and dismantle threats at scale.

To learn how Netcraft can help your organization prevent phishing attacks and recover quickly when incidents occur, book a demo and explore how the platform delivers enterprise-grade protection worldwide.