E-mail phishing is a type of cyber attack where you’ll usually receive a deceitful message intended to trick you into disclosing sensitive information or deploying malicious ransomware on your device.
For the experienced eye of an IT engineer, phishing can be rather obvious. So, how are you supposed to train your own eye?
E-mail Phishing Protection: Get to Know the Basics
To prevent your business from a bad burn, you will need both reliable anti-phishing software and thorough cyber security consulting on how to spot and react to phishing e-mails addressed to company members.
And if we can take professional care of the first one, the second one is entirely up to your internal management – including with the help of an expert cyber security consultant. It is strongly recommended to educate your employees to never click on any links, never open any attachments, and never fill in any questionable login forms coming from suspicious senders.
Anyway, what exactly does “suspicious” look like at first glance?
Red Flag #1: An Overall Unprofessional Look
Renowned brands and reputable businesses make great efforts to polish their brand image and provide a perfect user experience, including when e-mail communication is concerned.
Put shortly: missing design, no formatting, badly aligned paragraphs, or suspicious sender addresses are a massive warning signal to make you think twice. If you are still challenged and puzzled, never hesitate to reach out to a reliable IT support and cyber security specialist.
Red Flag #2: Poor Grammar and Punctuation
Nowadays, professional copy writing is a must for any company you’d be interested in interacting with.
That being said, poor grammar, incorrect punctuation, and an obviously illogical flow speak louder than words, and they usually scream “phishing.”
Red Flag #3: An Abnormal Sense of Urgency
When it comes to phishing, we can outline two types of urgency:
- The one that promises great rewards with no efforts at all;
- And the one that alerts for awful consequences if a particular condition and/or a deadline is not met.
As simplistic as it is, this approach relies on fundamental psychological principles and an inherent reaction to pleasure and pain. Be careful where you put your beliefs because being all too human can cost your business a lot.
Red Flag #4: Direct Personal Information Requests
No matter how convincingly the message is put through, you shall never overlook one basic cyber security principle: no credible partner, be it known or unknown, will ever ask for personal data directly and urgently.
When you see a request for ID copies, banking information, company data, or documentation without a context of communication, you are most probably dealing with phishing.
Are you feeling a bit more prepared already? Stay tuned on the Network Fish IT company blog to keep receiving valuable tips on keeping your company devices, data, and networks as safe as possible. Or contact us to understand more about our Cyber Security service.
