The aviation industry runs on trust and precision. Cybercriminals know it and they are exploiting that trust with a simple, effective weapon: phishing. Cybercriminals are betting you and your employees won’t spot the difference between a real message and a clever fake. Phishing attacks, including dangerous Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams, are a constant threat, designed to steal money, disrupt operations, and damage the trust you’ve built. To protect your organization from phishing, we recommend a two-layered approach that secures your email domain and actively monitors for threats.
Why Aviation Organization are a Prime Target for Phishing Attacks
It starts with an email that looks legitimate. A message from IT, a notice from a vendor, a request from HR. Cybercriminals are masters of disguise, tricking your employees into giving up credentials or access. This is common in highly targeted scams like BEC, where an attacker impersonates your CEO or a key vendor in a carefully crafted email. Their goal is to create a sense of urgency and authority to trick your finance department into wiring huge sums of money to a fraudulent account, or to convince employees to send over sensitive data.
The consequences are devastating: fraudulent wire transfers that empty bank accounts, stolen data, and locked-down systems from ransomware. We’ve seen sophisticated groups like Scattered Spider specifically target airlines and their contractors, using social engineering to cause millions in damage. They’re organized, motivated, and they see aviation as a high-value target for these exact kinds of attacks.
A Two-Layered Approach to Brand Protection
A reactive strategy to phishing isn’t enough. You need to fight phishing both inside and outside of your network. That includes locking down your email domain and actively hunting for threats before they reach your network.
1. Make Your Email Your Fortress with DMARC
Most phishing and BEC attacks start with a fake email. DMARC is your best defense against this. It’s a powerful email security standard that prevents criminals from spoofing your domain name. In simple terms, you get to decide which emails are legitimate.
With a DMARC policy in place, you can tell receiving mail servers to quarantine or flat-out reject any email that claims to be from you but fails authentication. It combats email impersonation and is a critical defense against BEC attacks that rely on spoofing an executive’s email address. Plus, DMARC reports give you incredible visibility into who is using your domain, so you can proactively identify threats.
2. Go on the Offensive with Proactive Monitoring
Great defense is essential, but you also need a good offense. That means finding and stopping threats before they can be used against you.
Watch for Look-Alike Domains: Attackers often register domains that are misspellings of your name (e.g., “fasebook.com” for “facebook.com”) or add words to it (e.g., “yourcompany-invoices.com”). This is a classic BEC tactic, designed to fool your accounts payable team with a fake invoice from a seemingly legitimate partner. Proactive domain name monitoring services can spot these domains the moment they’re registered, allowing you to block them before they ever appear in a phishing campaign.
Protect Your Brand Identity: Scammers are now copying logos and entire website designs to make their fakes more believable. By monitoring for misuse of your brand online, you can catch these sophisticated impersonation campaigns early.
Take Control of Your Security
The threat of phishing is real and growing, but you are not powerless. By implementing strong DMARC policies and pairing them with proactive domain and brand monitoring, you can create a powerful shield around your organization.
Ready to take control of your security? Give us a call today +1.888.982.7940.
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