Cybercrime has become a common word in our vocabulary over the last several decades. With the increase of technology comes an increase of technological threats. That’s why anti phishing training is essential to the health of any business. If it’s your responsibility to care for the training of the employees in your company, then ensure that anti phishing training is part of the curriculum.
What is Phishing?
Phishing scams are some of the most prevalent and destructive cyberattacks. Through the use electronic messages, cyber criminals trick the recipient into giving out their personal information, such as their identity or bank details. Phishing can emerge in many forms including through emails, over the phone, in a text or through USB phishing. Over the years, phishing attacks have become even more advanced to the point that attackers can remotely take over the recipient’s device and observe everything the victim is doing.
With these advancing attacks, it is becoming even more crucial that people are aware of phishing both in home and in the office. Across the world of the internet, these attacks are catching out more and more unsuspecting people. The personalisation of some of these attacks can catch you off guard. Don’t assume that it’s only the naïve and ignorant that are in danger – even the most tech savvy individual can be caught unaware by their disguise to the detriment of the user. In the years between 2017 and 2020, these kinds of attacks increased from 72% to 86% in businesses – it’s a cyber pandemic! There are things you can do to prepare your employees to be ready for these attacks and prevent the subsequent damage to the company.
Why Phishing is So Successful
As humans we all, naively, share the common feeling of trust. Phishing attacks exploit this trust by impersonating a company or individual that we respect and using it to trap us into giving out information without even considering any of the sinister consequences that may follow. They may bait you to open an attached file, click a link, complete a form or respond with personal data.
Furthermore, over the last two years, the amount of people working remotely from home has risen significantly due to the dangers of the pandemic. Sadly, this brings with it the danger of dealing with cyberthreats in isolation, without the assistance of security measures that are commonly in place on the work premises.
It takes an investment of time and money to help organisations avoid the pitfalls of the modern cyber world but it’s worth every penny.
Here are eight simple tips to identify and prevent these malicious scams and forearm your employees in the fight against phishing:
- Know the enemy
Phishing methods may have evolved over time but they share some common features that can help you know what you’re looking for. Keep up to date with the phishing scams that are circulating and you’ll be prepared when it turns up in your inbox folder.
- Don’t click links
Even if you think you know the sender, it’s not recommended that you click on any links on messages that you receive straight away. A good suggestion is to hover over a link and check that the destination matches the link. If you can, find the webpage by using a search engine instead of clicking a mysterious link.
- Get some assistance
You can find some free add-ons that can alert you when you come across a malicious website or link.
- Don’t give your information to everyone that asks for it
Look out for the padlock icon next to the URL at the top of the page – this will help you identify a legitimate and safe website for which to enter your information.
- Switch up your passwords
It might be tempting to use the same password for everything – it’s convenient and easy to remember! However, this comes with a danger as if one password is compromised, they’re all compromised.
- Keep updated
Software updates might be inconvenient and frustrating, but keeping things updated will keep things secure. As attacks evolve, so do your security needs. This is an easy way to avoid phishing.
- Stay protected
Bolster your security by setting up firewalls that will act as a shield between you and any potential cyber attacker.
- Avoid pop-ups
Pop-up ads don’t just get in the way, they are commonly linked to malware that will act as part of a phishing attack. You can also get free ad-blocker software which will save you the stress of falling into this trap.
Prewarned is forearmed. Arm your employees with knowledge to deal with the variety of phishing attacks that might come their way so that when an attack is able to sneak through the other security measures you’ve put in place, your staff will be able to identify a risk and avoid it. Having this knowledge will protect not only that individual but potentially the whole company.
Regularly train employees in the best way to recognise and handle threats. Regardless of the size of your company, the threat of phishing is real and can do serious damage. Organisations of any size will therefore greatly benefit from improving their phishing preparedness by undergoing ant-phishing training in some form. Some training platforms can even simulate a phishing attempt in order to give employees hands on experience in recognising and avoiding this kind of cyberattack.
Being on guard against the variety of attacks that might face you can be exhausting. Especially if you have a measure of responsibility in your company, the pressure to keep everybody cybersafe can be extremely stressful and overwhelming.
However, fortified with knowledge, experience and practise, you can feel assured of your employee’s competence in dealing with phishing attempts. With all the other jobs and responsibilities that we all carry as members of a workplace, it will save you a great deal of time, energy and stress if you can pre-empt the problems and face the fight against phishing.
