Phishing Tips to Be Aware of for Your Business

With over a 600% increase in phishing attacks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s crucial to understand how to prevent your business from falling victim as well. In fact, the pandemic has only heightened the urge for cyber attackers to take advantage of companies and steal their personal data. Continue reading to learn how you can become better aware of protecting your business from phishing scams.

Be on Guard When Receiving Emails Outside of Your Company

As we head deeper into the new year, you will most likely notice hundreds of spam emails sprinkle in. Although you may feel inclined to click into that alarming email from your bank or subscription service, it’s important to remain wary until you know it is legitimate. When opening an email that contains a link or attachment, always look for:

A very alarming story that makes you feel inclined to click onto a link. Most likely, if there is fraudulent activity on your bank account, you will not be asked to click on any link but will be instead asked to contact the bank or log into your account yourself to resolve it.
Confirmation that you have an account with the sender. Are you actually a customer of Bank of America? Do you have Amazon prime? Before you get nervous that something has happened to your account, make sure you actually have an account with them in the first place.
Contact the company that is sending the email and confirm that the contents in the email is in fact true. Rather than using a number provided in the email, look up the number yourself to ensure you are contacting the correct business.

See Through the Seemingly Harmless Email from Your Boss

As more companies move towards a permanent remote workforce, the importance of thinking on your toes is all the more crucial. Although you may feel confident in deciphering a suspicious email from a safe one, scammers are getting better at cloning those who are a part of your personal life so you are more intrigued to open its contents. Even if an email is coming directly from your boss, remain cognizant that the email may not in fact be from who you think. Before you click onto that attachment or link, be sure to check if:

Your name is addressed anywhere in the text of the email. Oftentimes a name will be missing from a fake email, and instead it will only say: “Hello,” or “Hi friend,”. This type of greeting does not prove the sender knows who you are, so consider it a red flag.
The email address is in fact the same as your boss’s. Pull up a past email you know came from them, and check letter for letter if it matches. Sometimes random numbers will be added or one single letter will be altered.
If all else fails, check with the sender directly to confirm it was in fact from them.

Conduct Routine Training Sessions with Employees

There is no shame in spending time to teach your employees the best practices for managing their emails and working from home in general. Explore some great ways to ensure your employees are keeping company data safe, whether they are working from home or in the office:

Set up training sessions to walk through how employees can best ensure the emails and websites they click on are safe. Be sure to instill these tips on a monthly basis.

Set up training sessions to walk through how employees can best ensure the emails and websites they click on are safe. Be sure to instill these tips on a monthly basis.
Send mock phishing scenarios to test how employees would respond if the contents in the email were in fact malicious.
If you are still nervous about employees accidentally clicking on suspicious links, block untrustworthy websites from their computer, and remove the ability for them to have access to personal emails on their work computer. This will lower the chances for employees to accidentally click on malicious links or attachments.

Always Prepare for The Worst

Even if you do your absolute best to prevent yourself and employees from clicking on malicious links, nothing is certain. That is why it is essential to do your part to ensure you have the security lined up to keep your business safe from cyberattacks. Nutmeg Technologies recommends you try the following tips to remain secure:

Rather than having a generic security software downloaded, utilize endpoint security so your company is protected to its fullest extent.
Backup your data so that if a hacker does destroy your information, it will not set your company back financially months or even years.
When in doubt, if disaster does strike, practice so you know exactly what will happen and what will be expected of you. We recommend doing routine scheduled disaster recovery to best prepare for these attacks.

Nutmeg Technologies is an IT managed service provider based out of Windsor, CT. We are happy to assist companies who are looking to have in-office or remote workforce through secure technology.

Visit https://nutmegtech.com/phishing-tips-checklist-to-be-aware-of-for-your-business for a free checklist that your business can follow to stay safe from phishing attempts.