The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), issued a public warning about common phishing techniques.

CICC Executive Director Alexander K. Ramos issued a cybercrime advisory on Oct. 23 in response to the release of a 14-page report titled "Phishing Guidance: Stopping the Attack Cycle at Phase One" by several United States agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

According to the report, phishing is a cyberattack that aims "to trick individuals into compromising their security and revealing sensitive information."

It said it is frequently the first stage of a broader attack that can result in data breaches, ransomware infestations, identity theft, and other serious consequences.

The report emphasized the two popular phishing techniques—phishing for credentials and malware-based.

Phishing for credentials is a phishing attack in which hackers pose as someone trustworthy and request login credentials to access the user's systems, while phishing with malware is an attack where hackers pretend to be a reliable source and trick users into clicking on malicious links or attachments that can install malware on their devices.

These phishing techniques can take the form of emails, text or chat messages, fake caller IDs, or apps.

The report underscored the importance of proper training, security measures, and incident response procedures in reducing the chances of phishing incidents.

CICC said that to prevent phishing attacks, individuals can take several measures, including using Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance for emails, implementing strong multi-factor authentication for credentials, using single sign-on for centralized logins, restricting users' administrative rights, utilizing protective DNS resolvers, among others.

In case of phishing incidents, individuals are advised to take steps such as resetting compromised accounts, isolating affected devices, analyzing and removing malware, and restoring normal operations.

The public is also encouraged to report any phishing activity to the relevant authorities to help identify and mitigate new threats.

Furthermore, CICC encouraged the public to report phishing attacks by calling its Inter-Agency Response Center (IARC) at 1326.

A simplified version of the guide, titled "US Government Releases Popular Phishing Technique Used by Hackers," was previously published on cybersecuritynews.com on Oct. 20.