According to a recent CompTIA report, even though people know what to do to avoid security breaches, they don’t always put this knowledge into practice. Employees can, however, take advantage of cybersecurity training in the workplace, learn to change passwords frequently, and implement other safeguards.
How to Identify a Phishing Scheme
The mouse arrow can be pointed at a suspected link exposing information you can use to identify an untrusted source. Another clue to be on the lookout for is a misspelling in the ‘reply to’ email address of the email. Third, hackers may use attachments that appear to be trusted (e.g., .txt or .doc) to try to get personal information. Inspect the extension of the attachment to ensure they do not include “.exe” as this may launch a cyber attack as an executable program.
Be Aware of Spear Phishing
Spear Phishing is a form of social engineering designed to get you and your employees to divulge specific privacy information by using relevant and trusted information to influence your behavior. This could include banking, vendor, customer or other familiar information to trick you into providing account, password and other privacy data. Similar to phishing, these same clues can be a help in avoiding “spear phishing” attacks. You may also consider reaching out to customers, vendors or employees to authenticate an email’s source before taking action.
Monitor Your Network and Use Security Information and Event Management Technology to Cyber Attacks
There are many options to monitor your network for intrusions. Network monitoring can identify unauthorized access, unauthorized network login attempts, unexpected network traffic in terms of volume or time of day that all could point to Cyber Attacks. By using Security Information Event Management (SIEM) technologies, possible threats can be assessed, giving your business a holistic view of the most significant threats in real time. You may also consider penetration testing to simulate a cyber attack, in order to determine any vulnerabilities in your system and assess which ones are most crucial.
While technology can help deter cyber attacks, human beings always play a role in staying safe. Even if a phishing attempt is directed specifically at an employee, it can compromise an entire network. To learn more about how to respond to upcoming threats, contact your technology advisor today.