What Is Phishing?

Last updated: 27 November 2025

Phishing is one of the oldest — and still most effective — cyber-threats, combining social engineering with technical deception to trick people into revealing sensitive data (credentials, personal info, tokens) or installing malware. Even with modern security tools, phishing remains the entry vector for a large portion of data breaches and account-takeover incidents.

This article explains how phishing works today, why it remains so dangerous in 2025, and how Selki helps organizations reduce the risk and detect credential exposure early.

1. What is Phishing?

Phishing is a type of social-engineering attack where criminals impersonate trusted entities (banks, fintechs, SaaS platforms, colleagues) via email, SMS, chat or fake websites, aiming to trick users into providing sensitive information — login credentials, tokens, payment data, personal documents — or to install malware. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

Common phishing vectors include:

• Email (most common)
• SMS / mobile messaging (often called “smishing”)
• Voice calls (“vishing”)
• Fake websites or fake login pages
• Social media or messaging apps

Phishing is fundamentally about exploiting human trust and error. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

2. Why Phishing Still Matters — 2025 Reality

Even with advances in cybersecurity, phishing remains a top threat vector. Key data from 2025 illustrate why:

• Over 3.4 billion phishing emails are sent daily worldwide. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}
• Phishing is responsible for approximately 36–40% of all data breaches in recent studies. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}
• More than 90% of cyberattacks involve phishing at some point — often as the initial entry vector. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}
• In 2025, a sharp increase in phishing targeting financial institutions and SaaS/user-auth platforms was observed. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}

Phishing remains effective because attackers combine:

• Narrative + social pressure (urgency, fear, trust)
• Impersonation of trusted brands or people
• Increasing sophistication (malicious links, fake login pages, domain spoofing)

Even users trained in cybersecurity awareness can be deceived — especially when phishing campaigns are well-crafted or use new methods (QR-codes, AI-generated messages, voice/social engineering). :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}

3. How Phishing Attacks Work — Typical Flow

1. Reconnaissance & Targeting — attacker chooses target (individual, company, group), collects public data (company domain lists, emails).
2. Bait Creation — crafts message imitating a trusted sender (bank, vendor, colleague), often with urgent or emotional tone.
3. Delivery — sends phishing via email, SMS, messaging app or links.
4. Exploitation — victim clicks link, submits credentials on fake page, or installs malware/stealer.
5. Post-compromise — stolen credentials/tokens used for account takeover (ATO), identity theft, fraud, lateral movement; possible download of sensitive data; resale of credentials on underground markets.

Thanks to this flow, phishing is often the first step in larger attacks (credential theft → lateral movement → ransomware / fraud / supply chain compromise).

4. Why Phishing Threats Hit Hard for SaaS / B2C / B2B2C Platforms

For companies that rely on user authentication — SaaS platforms, fintechs, marketplaces, web portals — phishing represents a structural risk:

• Credentials can be reused across systems → one leak compromises many services.
• Phishing often bypasses perimeter defenses (firewalls, EDR) because it exploits the user directly.
• Stolen tokens/session cookies + credentials allow direct account takeover without needing malware.
• High volumes of users magnify impact; a few compromised accounts can lead to fraud, brand damage or regulatory issues.

For these reasons, identity-centric monitoring and early detection of credential exposure are critical.

5. How Selki Helps Prevent & Mitigate Phishing-Driven Risk

Selki complements traditional security tools by focusing on exposure detection & identity hygiene — which many orgs miss when they rely solely on firewall/EDR/AV.

✅ What we do

• Continuous monitoring of leaked credentials/tokens — if a credential or session token linked to your domain/user base appears on underground logs or phishing dumps, Selki alerts you.
• Correlation with infostealer logs and phishing-related leaks — we flag when credentials exposed may be result of phishing or social attacks.
• Prioritization Risk Scoring — we classify exposures by severity (privileged account, admin, customer, service account), probability of abuse, and time since exposure.
• Early warning before account takeover / fraud — gives time to force password resets, revalidate sessions, enforce MFA/passkeys or alert users.
• Support for large-volume auth platforms — our system is built to monitor tens of thousands to millions of users, common in SaaS, fintechs, marketplaces.

Selki becomes a “second-layer” defense — beyond perimeter and endpoint, focusing on identity and exposure risk.

6. Recommended Best Practices (Beyond Monitoring)

Even with Selki, defense-in-depth still matters. Combine:

🔒 Technical Controls

• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) or passkeys — for all users, especially privileged ones.
• Session-management hygiene (short session lifetime, re-authentication, token invalidation).
• Use password managers — avoid manual reuse or weak passwords.
• Deploy EDR / behavioural monitoring — but don’t rely only on it.
• Network and browser protections (anti-phishing filters, safe-browsing, DNS filtering, block known malicious domains).

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Organizational Measures

• Periodic security awareness training — phishing simulations, but recognize that human error remains major risk. :contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}
• Clear incident response plan when credential exposure or leak is detected (force resets, review sessions, alert users, audit logs).
• Least-privilege principle for accounts — limit access rights and privileges to what’s strictly necessary.
• Regular audits of external threat intelligence data — leaks, dumps, underground logs.

7. Conclusion

Phishing remains one of the most pervasive and effective cyber-threats in 2025 because it targets people, not just systems. For organizations that rely heavily on authentication (SaaS, fintechs, marketplaces), that means exposure of credentials can rapidly lead to account takeover, fraud or reputational damage.

Selki provides a complementary layer — focusing on early detection of exposed credentials/tokens, alerting you before abuse occurs, and helping you take preventive action.

If you want help setting up monitoring or running an exposure audit, contact us at support@selki.io.

Updated on: 27/11/2025