Protect your business from email phishing?

Email phishing is the gateway to cyberattacks. 71% of businesses in the US have experienced a successful phishing attack.

Half of all the emails sent are phishing emails!

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Ransomware attacks originate from phishing attempts

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Phishing emails are sent out each day across the world

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Cyber attacks begin with a phishing email to an unsuspecting victim

Why do I need to protect against phishing attacks?

Phishing emails are by far the most common cyber attack attempted on businesses and indivuduals daily. It is an easy way for cyber criminals to infiltrate a business without having to find backdoors or network vulnerabilities. Phising essentially creates a backdoor and invites the hacker in.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a type of online scam where criminals send an email that appears to be from a legitimate company and asks you to provide sensitive information such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords. This is usually done by including a link that will appear to take you to the company’s website to fill in your information – but the website is a clever fake and the information you provide goes straight to the crooks behind the scam. The crooks are trying to steal your email, bank, or other accounts. Scammers launch thousands of phishing attacks like these every day — and they’re often successful. If these attacks were not successful, the scammers would not continue with them.

The term ’phishing’ is a spin on the word fishing, because criminals are dangling a fake ’lure’ (the email that looks legitimate, as well as the website that looks legitimate) hoping users will ’bite’ by providing the sensitive information the criminals have requested – such as credit card numbers, account numbers, passwords, usernames, and more. Look at the following image of an email for some clues indicating this email is actually a scam:

The hackers keep finding new ways to fool us into taking the bait

Fake Email Address

Suspicious Attachments

Generic Content and Greetings

Urgent Wording or Demanding Actions

Poor Grammar

Suspicious Links

Protect yourself from phishing

First and foremost a good security policy is needed to protect your organization from phishing attacks. Anti-malware, firewall, Intrusion Prevention (IPS), Vulnerability Scanning, and continuous Threat Monitoring, etc. should be part of the solution. A comprehensive business continuity plan with a good data backup is also required to recover from data loss or ransomware attack. Last, but not least, is employee education. Training your employees for Cybersecurity awareness is the best line of defense against cyber criminals.

Don’t open suspicious emails

If you receive an email supposedly from a financial institution with an alarming subject line — such as “Account suspended!” or “Funds on hold” — delete it. If you are worried that there is a problem, log in to your account or contact the bank directly. If there really is a problem with your bank account or credit card, you’ll find information once you’ve logged in.

Don’t click on suspicious links in emails

If you do open an email from someone you don’t know and you are instructed to click on a link, don’t. Often, these links will take you to fake websites that will then encourage you to either provide personal information or to click on links that might install malware on your computer.

Don’t click on pop-up ads

Hackers can add fraudulent messages that pop up when you visit even legitimate websites. Often, the pop-ups will warn you that your computer is infected and instruct you to call a phone number or install antivirus protection. Avoid this temptation. Scammers use these ads to either install malware on your computer or scam you out of a payment for a computer clean-up you don’t need.

Don’t send financial information through email

Your bank or credit card provider will never ask you to provide bank account numbers, your Social Security number, or passwords through email.

Don’t fall for too good to be true offers

Phishing emails may try to hook you with what appear to be incredibly cheap offers for things like smartphones or vacations. The offers may look irresistible but resist them. They’re likely phishing emails.

Don’t Let Phishing Threaten Your Business

All it takes to potentially crumble a business is one untrained employee being fooled by cybercriminals who will steal critical data or request a fraudulent payment. It’s crucial that employees are trained and educated on the most common phishing email red flags in order to help businesses avoid major cyber security pitfalls.

Protect your business from email phishing with proactive solutions from Benchmark Network Solutions. Our expert team will help you secure your email, train your employees, and stop phishing attacks before they start.

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