Phishing attacks are among the most common cyberattacks today. Phishing is often considered to be the easiest way to steal information for malicious purposes; you don’t need complex programming ability or advanced technical know-how to launch a phishing attack, which is why a lot of them are circulating at any given time.
For businesses, falling victim to phishing attacks can be catastrophic. If sensitive information and details such as usernames and passwords to your cloud environment get into the wrong hands, you are looking at additional cybersecurity risks to mitigate. Fortunately, phishing attacks are also easy to prevent with the tips and tricks we are about to discuss in this article.
Know How to Spot One
According to FraudWatch International, phishing attacks tend to have some red flags that you can spot early. The easiest way to spot phishing attacks is in the format of the emails or the URL that you are supposed to visit. At the same time, companies like FraudWatch International can help protect your business from financial losses due to phishing websites in a more proactive way.
Phishing attacks can be spotted from the headers of the email or shared message. You can easily inspect the header of any email you receive, particularly the originating server. If an email has @microsoft.com TLD but comes from a server that uses another domain, you immediately know that it is not an email from Microsoft.
Learn to be Sceptical
Being sceptical when receiving emails, especially unusual ones, is another great habit to get into if you want to protect your business from phishing attacks. Rather than immediately following instructions or clicking on the link included in emails, spend a bit more time double-checking everything.
Being sceptical also means reading the instructions carefully. It takes some getting used to, but it will not be long before you can separate phishing emails from original ones. Fake emails also have signs that you can spot immediately, such as typos and bad grammar.
Verify URLs
If you do decide to click on an URL sent to you via email, the next thing to do is review the URL carefully. Do you get taken to the correct website? Is there an SSL certificate displayed on the address bar? Is the SSL certificate valid and correct?
Phishing attacks usually fake legitimate pages (i.e. the password reset page of Google) to harvest your personal information. Knowing how to spot these fake pages can make or break your business information security measures against phishing attacks.
Get Everyone Involved
Last but not least, make sure all stakeholders of the business – employees and contractors in particular – know these tips and are able to spot phishing attacks effectively. With everyone involved, you can further protect your business interests and stop phishing attacks from causing bigger problems further down the line.
As you can see, preventing phishing attacks is easier than you think. With a few simple tips and more time spent reading emails and other messages, you can stop worrying about a phishing attack harming your business and the mission-critical information you store in the cloud.
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