Cybercriminals reap massive profits every year with phishing scams. Phishing attacks are used to steal people’s passwords, usernames, Social Security numbers, and more every year. Sometimes, phishing attacks happen to employees on the job, and the consequences can be severe for their organizations. – Phishing Vulnerabilities
If you want to prevent cyberattacks such as phishing, below is essential information to digest.
How Does Phishing Work?
Reducing your organizational vulnerabilities to phishing can be accomplished with regular employee training. When training your workers, it helps to explain how the typical phishing scam works.
Employees will usually receive an email that seems to come from a well-known entity you do business with. For example, employees may know your firm works with Chase Bank, so the email might – apparently – come from Chase.
The communication will probably warn the person of a severe problem that requires their immediate response. Employees could see alarming words, such as, “respond immediately,” or “immediate action needed to avoid suspension,” etc. There will be a link at the bottom they are encouraged to click.
In a typical scam, the link redirects to a fake website that resembles the real site. It can even be the actual website. But a pop-up box will appear to grab the person’s private information. They’ll be encouraged to enter their personal data, such as social security number, password, or account number.
How To Protect Yourself- Phishing Vulnerabilities
Fortunately, simple ways exist to avoid almost all phishing scams. When conducting employee training, make sure to inform your employees of these easy tips:
Think Before Clicking
It’s essential to consider the destination of any email link before clicking it. Using your cursor, hover over that suspicious link to see what the URL is.
Is the link going to where you think? If not, delete the email and alert your cybersecurity department about the attempt.
Update Your Web Browser
Popular web browsers are updated every day to keep Web users safe from new vulnerabilities. They are released often to patch security risks that cybercriminals are using most often.
If you or your employees ignore reminders to update browsers and software, there is a higher risk of falling victim. So, as soon as an update is released, update the computer or browser.
Choose A Standard User Account
When working on your office PC, it’s important to use a regular user account most of the time. By using an admin account all the time, the user and company is at a higher risk of cybercrimes.
You should only use the admin account when you must use administrator functions for a specific reason. This precaution safeguards your company and reduces potential access to critical functions.
Report Phishing
Following the aforementioned methods are sure-fire ways to avoid most phishing scams. But if you do receive a fishy email, you should do more than just delete it.
You can report phishing and other digital fraud attempts to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Also, you should report the attempt to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APW).
Watch Out For Pop-Ups
Crooks can send the phishing link to a legitimate website, but then a pop-up window will appear. That’s the one to look out for!
Never put personal data into any pop-up window – unless you are positive it is legitimate. And you can reduce your risk of this attack by simply blocking pop-up windows on your device.
One final tip: If you or an employee receives a phishing email, never open it. Don’t click on anything and delete it right away. But as noted earlier, report the phishing attempt to your organization and relevant government organizations.
