Phishing Scams: Don’t Get Hooked!

6.10.2022

Do you know why phishing scams have quickly become the main form of attack for cyber criminals? It’s because phishing is easy, cheap, and effective. Email addresses are easy to obtain, and emails are virtually free to send; with little effort and little cost, attackers can quickly gain access to valuable data!

In fact, phishing attacks can be traced back to the 1990s, when hackers began using fraudulent emails to “fish” for information from unsuspecting users, attempting to lure them in and get them to take the bait. Once you’re hooked, both you and your organization are at risk. Datasmith is here to help protect you against these attacks.

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) notes that phishing attacks use email or malicious websites to infect your machine with malware and viruses to collect personal and financial information. Emails may appear to come from a real financial institution, e-commerce site, government agency, any business or individual.

According to Microsoft, the best defensive is awareness and knowing what to look for! Here are some tips:

• Links & Attachments: Always be suspicious of emails that ask you to click, call, or open an attachment.
• Spelling and Bad Grammar: If an email message has obvious spelling or grammatical errors, it might be a scam.
• Mismatched Domains: Be watchful for subtle misspellings of legitimate email domain names.

While your email spam filters may keep most phishing emails out of your inbox, it’s important that you take additional steps to protect yourself from phishing attacks. A few ways you can do this are by also:

• Protecting your computer by using security software.
• Protecting your mobile phone by utilizing automatic software updates.
• Protecting your accounts by using multi-factor authentication.
• Protecting your data by backing it up.

Whether it be through assessments and testing, policy development, or security awareness training, cybersecurity is a 24 hour, 7 days a week, 365 days a year job, but a comprehensive security posture is critical for your organization!

With Datasmith, you’ll know what it takes to swiftly and effectively neutralize security threats and adapt safeguard to address potential future infiltration attempts. We don’t want to see you get hooked. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your organization stay educated, operational, and safe when it comes to all things cybersecurity.