Phishing attacks are still prevalent today, and your company will encounter one if you do not have any effective security measures to safeguard against this kind of threat. There are many ways to protect your data and ensure that your business doesn’t get disrupted by phishing attacks. One of which is to ensure that you have a proper backup email system, such as the O365 email backup. There are other ways to protect your company from this threat:
Use a strong email spam filter
Most phishing attacks occur when someone opens an email without properly scanning that message for malicious threats. Phishers often use emails as their medium to hack into other people’s hard drives and steal their data. Emails have very weak security systems. They’re weak not in the sense that there are no safeguards to protect the user from phishing attacks. They’re weak because the user themselves can downgrade the security of an email by simply providing the hacker with any information they need.
What phishers do is that they send someone an email wherein they request for the user’s password, credit card information, or any other sensitive data that they can use against the user. Normally, no one will give their personal information just like that. But phishers come up with imaginative ways to coax an unsuspecting user to simply give away their sensitive data. For example, one phishing attack disguised itself as an email notifying the user that their Netflix account is about to expire. To renew their account and continue accessing Netflix, they have to click on the button at the bottom of the message, leading them to a page where they have to provide details of their credit card.
This is how phishing attacks individuals. They impersonate a reputable entity and send people emails, urging them to provide their personal and financial information. Since these phishers disguise themselves as reputable establishments, people will automatically assume that it’s safe to give them the information that they need.
But if you have a strong spam filter, your email will automatically scan every incoming email. It will detect if one email seems suspicious and warn you right away. Instead of opening those emails, you’ll be prompted to delete them because they might contain malicious software.
Teach your employees to be vigilant
Because hackers find it easier to target people and not their programs, it’s wise to teach your employees to avoid emails that seem suspicious. Talk to them about phishing and the dangers of opening emails that they do not recognize. That way, they’ll be more proactive in sifting through the emails they receive and getting rid of those that they do not recognize.
Another way to improve security through your employees is to implement a rule that they shouldn’t open their personal emails inside the office and that they should ignore any email not directly connected to the company. If they find a promo in their inbox that has nothing to do with the company, like a promo trip to the Bahamas, they should simply ignore it or, even better, delete it.
These are just some of the ways to protect your company against phishing attacks. Use these suggestions, and be wary of emails that try to ask for your personal and financial information.
