Protecting Against Phishing Attacks: How To Protect Against Phishing Attack Scams

Understanding Phishing and Its Impact on Small Businesses 

Phishing attacks pose a constant threat to small businesses, leaving the potential for devastating damage, both financially and reputationally. 

Therefore, it is crucial to be aware of these threats for any organizations wishing to defend themselves. This section will review the common phishing techniques used against businesses. 

• Recognize suspicious emails – Look out for unexpected links, typos, or urgent language.

• Verify sender identity – Always double-check email addresses before clicking anything.

• Use multi-factor authentication – Add an extra layer of security to your accounts.

• Keep software up to date – Patch known vulnerabilities that attackers exploit.

• Train your team – Regularly educate staff on the latest phishing tactics.

Let me know if you want a version tailored to small business readers or IT professionals.

Each of the techniques below varies in complexity and sophistication. We will also look at how these techniques have the potential to harm the financial and operational well-being of organizations. 

By understanding more about these scams, small business owners can better protect their environments from malicious pursuits. 

Common Phishing Techniques Used Against Businesses 

Phishing scams can be massively costly for businesses as cybercriminals continue to innovate ways of abusing their vulnerabilities. 

Knowing the differences between phishing techniques can help businesses create defenses. The most common phishing technique is spear phishing. This is the practice of targeting specific individuals within an organization with phishing messages. 

Spear phishing messages can be highly sophisticated and believable, creating a sense that the message is coming from another person you know or from an organization that you trust. 

Many times, employees are duped into providing sensitive information, such as access credentials, social security numbers, bank account numbers, etc. 

Attackers often use other types of phishing attacks (such as clone phishing, where valid messages are intercepted, copied, and modified by the attacker and then sent out with (malicious) links or attachments in order to trick the recipient into taking action on their legitimate messages) in their attacks. 

Clone phishing, in particular, relies on previous and trusted communications to convince unsuspecting individuals. 

One common but highly effective phishing technique is vishing (voice phishing), where an attacker uses a phone call under the guise of a legitimate reason but with the goal of extracting information from the individual in either a quiet way or getting them to do something. 

Cybercriminals can find all sorts of methods to create malicious links. One way that has consistently worked to respond to common phishing attempts is to target employees of a company. 

Instead of targeting a big fish, they want to target the small fish because workers (the fish) with less authority usually do not have the training or just have not been trained to recognize malicious emails or processes. 

One interesting threat has arisen called business email compromise (BEC) – this is when an attacker gains entry to an organization’s internal email. The attacker has the ability to impersonate a business executive who can create emails to unsuspecting workers so that they can move funds or take assets that contain sensitive information. 

The vast majority of phishing attacks will cost the organization both money and downtime. 

Even though all phishing vectors target the weakest link of an organization – its people, businesses will provide themselves with a much more robust capability to counter these phishing vectors if they invest a little time and effort in education-based programs that are covered in this guide. 

It is such a simple step that pays big dividends and is the best way to lower the impact of phishing messages, by educating employees on how to recognize and report phishing messages. Investing in strong spam filters and keeping policies current is another important step to help protect organizations. 

However, organizations have to remain vigilant, continually monitor for phishing-specific attacks, and respond quickly to any threats. By creating and implementing the common best practices listed in this guide, businesses will understand how to extinguish security risks. 

Cybersecurity should be a major aspect of any organizational business plan, and the goal should be to ensure that every employee can be a useful ally against phishing. In the end, small business owners and employees can implement productive defenses against all of the potential cybersecurity risks that exist on an everyday basis against our businesses.

Recognizing Phishing Scams in Emails and Websites 

The nuisances of email phishing scams are an imperative part of understanding how to hopefully protect your business against them. This section provides guidance for recognizing and identifying phishing attempts in emails and websites. 

Having an understanding of the warning signs of phishing websites and emails can help protect small business owners. We will walk through some of the less obvious but ongoing differences that support recognizing a legitimate website versus a phishing website. 

It is our hope that with the information we provide, you will improve your organization’s exposure to phishing attempts and create a safer online environment in which to conduct business.

WARNING SIGNS OF PHISHING WEBSITES

A phishing website has a single intent: to convince a user that they are on a legitimate website to collect sensitive information. Detecting phishing websites is for any organization wanting solid phishing protection. 

One of the first hints of phishing sites is the URL. Phishing websites typically (but not always) alter domain names by one or two characters and play with letters or other benign details. They might also add a common website extension to draw more credibility to the domain name. 

The use of “domain trust” is in the user’s mind when scanning a URL from a search engine or an email. Many of the phishing emails and websites attempt to probe to troubleshoot the user’s intent regarding the URL destination. The URL often contains indications of references from established websites. 

A very common indication of a phishing website is a lack of security certification. If the website indicates that it is using HTTPS, it has a secure connection. Phishing websites don’t always use HTTPS and can certainly alert users that the website lacks any type of security validation. On the other hand, visually inspecting a website is also a great way to find a phishing attempt. 

Many phishing websites are based on templates of popular sites, but they fail to use the attention to detail that legitimate websites do, which can alert users. 

Some examples of failing to pay attention to detail would be inconsistent logo and image quality, poor quality photos, or a website that is written as an advertisement but uses odd spacing between text. 

Furthermore, phishing websites often create a false sense of urgency that often is large fonts, pop-ups, or banner messages requesting that you respond quickly to alerts. Typical wording you may find alerting you to respond quickly is: “immediate action required,” “your account will be locked,” or “you have been alerted for suspicious activity.” 

This wording attempts to urge users to willingly provide their credentials, often coming at a cost to the user. 

The buttons inserted into a phishing website can typically unveil and distinguish it from a legitimate site. Hover over any link and find out if the exact destination URL matches the site you are attempting to navigate. If they don’t match, it is likely to be a phishing website. 

Furthermore, legitimate websites are unlikely to ask for sensitive information in Flash or otherwise communicate requests for security; using an alternative website looks to reset passwords or for personal information. Legitimate websites can almost always be found through search engines, as opposed to links in emails or suspicious messages. 

Any company that asks you to verify your personal information online will give you an alternate way to reach out to the company directly. Any attempt to ask for personal information or financial details must be scrutinized and verified with a legitimate company using reliable contact methods. 

Awareness is critical to protect your business from phishing risks. The more you know about the potential indicators that can alert you to phishing sites, the more seriously you need to take relevant actions for the security of your business. 

If you are suspicious of a site, you should always exit the site immediately and report it to your company’s IT department or service provider like RCOR in Raleigh-Durham. Continuing to create awareness and help each other approach the incredible world of technology with a borrowed sense of vigilance for your business and employees will help your company succeed!

Taking Steps to Protect from Phishing Attacks

Growth in phishing threats is on the rise, especially for small businesses. It is important for small business owners to learn and understand all the steps to take to protect their businesses against phishing attacks. 

This section will examine the importance of passwords and methods for learning for better phishing protection. Small business owners can help their companies a great deal by protecting against phishing attacks by focusing on password security and educating their workers. 

These steps can prevent the risk of falling victim to an established phishing or scam operation and create a safer environment for conducting business. The Importance of Passwords in Phishing Protection

The Role Of Passwords In Phishing Defense

In defending against phishing attacks, it is essential to understand the importance of effective passwords. Passwords serve as the easiest barrier to keep the intended account or data private from unwanted individuals attempting access. 

Although our passwords are often an obvious target for phishing scammers, strong passwords (and proper secure password management) are one type of phishing protection. 

To help guard against phishing scams, the first thing to do is to ensure that your passwords are strong and not the same as other passwords. Powerful passwords should contain a mixture of capital letters, lower-case letters, numbers, and perhaps a symbol. Strong password measures are things that are difficult for bad actors to crack. 

For example, don’t use your birth date or a few common words, as they are targets used in a phishing type of attack to retrieve your credentials! One of the best practices for passwords is a password manager. A password manager is a platform that helps encrypt and store difficult passwords. 

Not only does it make it easier for employees to manage separate accounts without going back to dumb, memorized, repeated passwords, but it also minimizes the chances of those passwords being harvested through phishing emails or phishing sites pretending to be legitimate login pages. 

Your Members should change passwords frequently and not use the same passwords across sites. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds another important level of defense from phishing. 

Not only does it improve overall security, but you also have an added layer of required second-factor authentication, such as a code sent via text message or response from a mobile authentication app. 

This important added layer of protection can be especially important if the password is compromised. In summary, applying some of these password practices will assist in implementing a safer environment for your business and mitigate the risk of phishing. Members should continue to develop Employee Education for staff about phishing attempts related to password information. 

Regular security briefings and training to strengthen awareness and ongoing attention to emails and messages from unknown sources asking for password updates or verifications. 

Developing a culture of awareness for advised vigilance will be a valuable outcome that helps the protection “go below the metal” of small business owners and help their employees stand up as the first line of defense against phishing attacks. 

Passwords are the first line of phishing defense; taking these important actions is essential to protecting your organization’s ongoing security.