Phishing scams are geared towards infiltrating your system in order to gain access to usernames, passwords and sensitive information such as credit card details. These scams are, unfortunately, also very common and often appear real. There are, however, steps that you can take to protect your business against phishing attacks:
1. Prevent phishing emails from reaching users
2. Update your software
3. Train your employees on safe practices
4. Use two-step verification
5. Conduct mock phishing attacs
With the average cost of a successful phishing attack estimated at approximately $1.6million for an SME, it’s vital that you know how to identify a phishing scam and educate your employees about the risks associated with it.
1 Prevent phishing emails form reaching users
The best approach to this preventative measure is to deploy specialized anti-phishing software either focused on cloud-based email or on-prem behind a firewall. There are a number of options available, each with its own unique set of capabilities including identifying malware attachments, man-in-the-middle attacks and spear-phishing emails. The overall aim of this software is to prevent suspect emails from reaching users’ inboxes.
2 Update your software
Even with the specialized software mentioned above, it remains crucial to keep your software updated. Phishing attacks exploit outdated software therefore you should install updates for everything you’re using, even something as innocent as a PDF reader, as it could ultimately become a security hole.
3 Train your employees on safe practices
It is equally important that your employees, as the most likely targets of phishing, are aware of the dangers and consequences of phishing. You have to ensure that everyone is on the same page and following the appropriate security guidelines regarding phishing to the letter.
4 Use two-step verification
When signing in with both a password and a second factor (either a security key, OTP sent to your mobile device or an authenticator app) adds an additional layer of security and helps to protect your accounts from phishing attacks.
5 Conduct mock phishing attacks
Further to continuously training your employees it is also a good idea to send “mock” phishing emails to test their reaction to a (perceived) real phishing email. You can monitor your backend to see whether your employees either click on the link, report it, or send it to spam. It’s a small exercise that can go a long way!
Stage2Data partners with Heimdal Security to offer robust, multi-layered security products to combat next-gen malware, ransomware and other enterprise threats. For more information, please get in touch.
Read more about phishing:
Why Organizations Fall Victim To Phishing Attack – Five Tips to Ensure You Don’t Take the Bait
What Damage Can Phishing Cause to Your Business?
