A Short Guide for Spotting Phishing Attempts

This report overviews phishing as a common social engineering threat, highlighting increasing attack volumes and how adversaries exploit urgency, authority, thread hijacking, malicious links/attachments (e.g., HTML, OneNote), and callback lures—often enhanced by generative AI—to steal information; it advises not clicking links or opening unknown attachments, promptly reporting suspicious emails to security teams, and emphasizes employee training and simulated phishing programs to strengthen defenses.