How to Fend Off Phishing Attacks

Security threats present themselves around every corner in today’s world of technology. It’s important to be informed of what strategies hackers are using so you can protect your company. Phishing sounds innocent enough but can cause real damage.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a term used to describe a malicious attack where a victim is tricked into giving over private information such as bank accounts, credit card numbers, or passwords. These attacks can happen to large groups of people or targeted towards one specific person. You might hear terms such as mass phishing, spear phishing, or whale phishing depending on what type of group or person the hacker is targeting.

The most common types of attack occur over email, but a hacker can present them through text-messaging or voice-based phone calls. If you receive an email from a known brand but it includes a scare-tactic such as past due fee, or there are grammatical errors these are signs it is a fraudulent account. Verify with your bank or company account if you want to confirm payments.

How to Avoid Phishing

• Look for red flags: Any message that demands information from you should be a warning.
• Never send personal information: Unless you have confirmed you know the recipient and never use email to send private details.
• Avoid links and downloads from unknown senders.
• Be aware of pop-ups: Install a pop-up blocker for extra protection.
• Keep your anti-virus system up to date.
• Regularly scan bank statements for irregular activity.

Keeping Your Systems Protected

Your IT systems can be quickly overrun by a phishing scam if they are not adequately monitored. While it is in your best interest to maintain your IT systems, there are other business-critical tasks at hand. Managed IT services is a business solution that will evaluate and secure your network, so you don’t have to. A managed IT service will fend off phishing attacks by keeping your software up to date and eliminating risks before they take hold.

To protect your IT network from phishing attacks with managed IT services, call us today!