{"id":5761,"date":"2020-05-22T12:12:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T11:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/?p=5761"},"modified":"2021-11-24T12:58:56","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T12:58:56","slug":"dont-take-the-bait-tips-for-avoiding-a-phishing-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/blog\/dont-take-the-bait-tips-for-avoiding-a-phishing-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t take the bait: tips for avoiding a phishing attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all gotten those emails before. <\/span>Congratulations! You\u2019ve won a \u00a3100,000 voucher from Argos. Click here in the next three hours to claim your reward!\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>We want to believe them. They just might be real. And that is exactly the mentality cybercriminals are taking advantage of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These kinds of scam emails are known as phishing attacks- and they are everywhere. According to <\/span>Verizon\u2019s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report<\/span><\/a> released this week, they made up nearly a quarter (22%) of all cyber breaches this year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We’ve seen an even greater rise in these over the past three months as hackers preyed on widespread anxiety by impersonating official sources like the US Center for Disease Control, the World Health Organisation, and various government offices offering ‘updates’ and ‘alerts’ around the virus.<\/p>\n

Phishing attacks fall into two broad categories. They are usually trying to persuade you to click on a link that will lead to a spoof site and require you to enter personal data (credit card details, personal or bank information, etc), or to download malware onto your device (either through a link or an attachment).<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of these phishing emails can be extremely convincing. Even EasyJet fell victim<\/a> this week. So how can you protect your business, your employees, and ultimately your customers against them?<\/span><\/p>\n

Training employees how to recognise the warning signs of phishing emails is the best way to prevent these kinds of attacks and might be the best solution for smaller businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

While there are a few great pieces of anti-phishing software out there that use email filtering to detect and flag suspicious email addresses and malicious links or attachments, the most convincing phishing attacks often slip through the net of even sophisticated software.<\/span><\/p>\n

Something smells fishy here: spotting the signs of a scam<\/h3>\n

Read carefully<\/strong><\/p>\n

Copywriters at big companies spend a lot of time crafting emails and there’s often a noticeable lack of quality with phishing scams.\u00a0<\/span>A few tell-tale signs include:<\/p>\n