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Phishing protection can help you reduce your chances of falling for phishing scams.
Phishing is a type of online scam. It occurs when a malicious party sends an email while pretending to be from a legitimate sender, such as a bank, the government, an internet service provider, or another supposedly trustworthy source.
Many people have experienced the horror of, “Oh no, I clicked on a phishing link!” and not knowing what to do next. Each phishing link can look quite different, but the end goal is the same: some malicious party wants to attack you where you are vulnerable. After that, your data could be stolen, a virus could penetrate your network system, or the phishing attacker could proceed to commit identity theft. The possibilities are endless.
Phishing protection can help you reduce your chances of falling for phishing scams. As for the question of what is phishing protection, it is any security measures organizations put in place to reduce the possibility of their employees falling for phishing scams.
Companies of all sizes can benefit from phishing link checker tools and other helpful anti-phishing security measures. Phishing takes advantage of human errors, often using social engineering to attack vulnerabilities successfully.
Your destination may be achieving compliance in industry certifications such as SOC2 or ISO27001, but it doesn’t stop there. With Trava, our modern tools can help you bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be by giving you the control to assess your risk, repair the most vulnerable areas, and transfer risk through insurance.
Like all types of scams, the more aware you and your staff members are of them, the less likely they will work on you. There are four main types of phishing: spear phishing, whaling, vishing, and email phishing. While these terms may sound a bit silly, they are all potentially devastating phishing examples.
Spear phishing is a type of phishing that targets specific individuals or companies. This kind of phishing requires more effort from the scammers but simultaneously tends to be more effective due to their targeted research. The scammers exploit data that is carefully collected from the recipients’ social media, jobs, and other personal accounts. By having their marks’ unique behavior in mind, the cyber attackers are more likely to convince the victim to overlook security measures and common sense, thereby believing in the attacker.
Whaling is essentially a specific kind of spear phishing. A whale is a nickname for someone wealthy or famous, such as a celebrity or a “big fish” business executive. Malicious actors will try to steal these whales’ sensitive information, such as login credentials or credit card numbers.
The next kind of phishing attack is called smishing, which is a combination of SMS and phishing. It involves sending text messages instead of emails in an attempt to lure out sensitive information. The danger of smishing is that text messages in phishing examples 2022 usually sound more personable and real, resulting in more successful attacks.
The last main phishing attack type is called vishing. These scams involve targeting call centers and tricking the representatives into revealing sensitive information. Example attacks include using social engineering to target vulnerable employees and trick them into installing malware.
In general, phishing attacks exploit people’s perceived need to act. If your company is hiring, for example, it is natural to assume that every resume link can be opened without double-checking. Operating with great care is a possibility, but such scrutiny across your organization is much harder to sustain than installing phishing protection software.
There are plenty of other phishing types that exist or will be created. The cyber threat landscape is always evolving, with scammers and hackers devising new ways to take advantage of companies’ vulnerabilities. Phishing protection software needs to continuously adapt to new risks as well.
Every company faces unique cybersecurity challenges. Strengthening your security posture through using cybersecurity software is very valuable. That raises the question of, is phishing worth protecting against?
Phishing is a highly prevalent issue, which makes anti-phishing security measures worthwhile. While the threat may sound more straightforward and easier to raise awareness for than other threat actors, it is actually one of the most dangerous threats to your company's accounts and data. Phishing schemes can vary greatly and cause significant damage to your business. You can lose control over your accounts, be targeted by ransomware, lose your intellectual property, and take a hit on your business's reputation if a data breach occurs.
Over the years, many large enterprises have fallen victim to phishing schemes. Whaling attacks in particular have cost companies millions of dollars.
When it comes to learning how to protect against phishing attacks, you can consider researching the numerous phishing tool options available.
Phishing protection software can help you figure out how to prevent phishing in your company. Sometimes, spreading awareness through a training program is not enough. Phishing methods have become more sophisticated and persuasive, making even very smart people fall for the tricks.
Anti-phishing software should aim to provide companies with phishing detection capabilities. Useful phishing tools should be able to detect threats before they penetrate your systems. They may also be able to automatically block or monitor uploads that contain sensitive data. This way, if an employee either accidentally or purposefully tries to leak sensitive information, your company can be alerted and take action.
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If you look at a scam report, phishing email scams are one of the most common scams. Email phishing protection is therefore very important because phishing attempts are often made via email. In order to become less vulnerable, it is a good idea to be aware of the latest phishing email types. Here are some of the most used phishing email examples:
Companies, especially larger ones, receive plenty of emails across their departments every day. It can be easy to assume that the email is from a legitimate source and automatically click a phishing link.
The phishing email may contain malware, ransomware, and other harmful viruses that attack your systems after the link or attachment has been clicked. You may see an attachment that the sender claims to be a bank statement. In some situations, malware can be extremely malicious and take down your entire system. A popular phishing attempt takes place when the attacker pretends to be PayPal and tells the recipient that their account has been compromised and will be deactivated unless they confirm their credit card details by clicking a link.
If your company has open positions and is currently hiring, attackers may see this and pretend to be applying for a job. These emails can appear extremely realistic and even name the job position they are supposedly interested in. When you click the link to their resume, your system gets hit with malware. Malware can not only attack your local computer but also hurt your company network.
If an employee gets an email that appears to be from their IT department, it is natural for them to automatically listen to the instructions in the email. For example, the attacker may tell you that the company requires all employees to download a new software update. The email looks legitimate because the attacker uses an email that seems to be from your company. To make employees even more likely to click the phishing links provided, the sender might create a false sense of urgency. The sinister attacker might claim that the company needs all workers to download something as soon as possible because of a security risk, otherwise the worker might get in trouble for not adhering to the new requirements.
Scams in the form of phishing emails are increasingly prevalent. Reporting phishing emails is one way to reduce the amount of phishing emails that exist. Unfortunately, phishing emails are unlikely to stop because many people and companies do not invest in phishing detection software. People also do not report Gmail account emails that look suspicious because of the additional time consumption necessary to do so.
Still, the way to report Gmail phishing attacks is fairly simple and good to know. You may access the button by clicking on “More” beside the email and choosing the “Report phishing” option. It is natural to have reservations about reporting phishing emails for whatever reason. The most peace of mind you can get in regard to phishing attacks is to procure a phishing prevention tool. This software are more capable of detecting threats both quickly and effectively.
If you do not have a phishing detection tool, you can follow Google’s guidelines for deciding whether an email is a scam or a malicious attack. If the email asks you to give your private info, click a link, or download an application, it is wise to be wary. Many organizations state upfront that they will never ask you for your password through an email or text message.
Reporting phishing emails and text messages actually do help the authorities reduce the amount of cyber crime. You can protect yourself and others by reporting an email that you suspect is fraudulent. Note that while you are reporting the email, avoid opening it. Never click links that appear in a suspicious email, and it may be smart to verify with people in your company if they truly did send a link to you.
