Phishing scams have been steadily increasing in number over the last few years. Unfortunately, businesses are a particularly worthwhile target for hackers and if your enterprise uses email, it will be susceptible to phishing scams.
What’s the aim of a phishing scam?
The aim of a phishing scam is to gain access to money, passwords, financial data or other sensitive information. The attacker might pose as an organisation you recognise or they’ll pose as a member of your own company. The email will probably request information or invite you to follow a link to a website where you will be asked to input personal, or company data.
Why are they successful?
These attacks have been painstakingly researched, planned and crafted by the hacker. They’ll use a variety of social engineering tactics to generate a sense of urgency. You might also have heard of these attacks by another name – CEO fraud or imposter emails – they’ve been given this name because the attackers have researched your enterprise to such an extent that they know your chain of command and the names of your employees, hence why phishing scam emails often appear to have been sent from a member of the leadership team. In an attempt to maximise their chance of success hackers will hand craft each email to appeal to the target recipient.
The attacks are so lucrative because of the simplicity of the email that the attackers send. They don’t contain malware, attachments or links so it’s often quite difficult for email security software or members of your staff to spot.
How can you protect your business from phishing scams?
- Educate your employees so that they’re full aware of the dangers of phishing scams and don’t send sensitive information via email.
- Install anti spam software such as MailCeaner that will detect, filter and block spam emails and effectively fight phishing scams along with other forms of attack including ransomware and cryptolocker.
To find out more about how MailCleaner can protect you from spam and email phishing scams visit our benefits page now.