With the current geopolitical crisis, you may be rethinking your current cybersecurity strategy. Now more than ever is a good time to implement new and updated security measures and phishing training courses. It’s important that you make protecting your North Carolina business a priority. This is a bigger issue now given what’s going on.
In a recent global survey, 49% of organizations say keeping up with security challenges is harder than it was two years ago. To account for these new challenges, 88% of organizations say that they’re increasing security spending. Considering these trends, it’s important that you evaluate what you’re doing to stay up to date on security measures.
For example, is your business fully protected? According to Accenture, 43% of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, with only 14% of those prepared for an attack. And trust us, these attacks are not cheap if cyberthreats steal your data. More than half of all cyberattacks cost over $500,000 in financial damages. This also includes lost revenue, customers, opportunities, and any out-of-pocket costs. Are you ready to take the first step towards protecting your business?
Phishing Training: Email Security Has Never Been More Important
If you’re ready to bolster your email security, a great place to start is with phishing training. Teach your employees how to detect any sort of attack with regular cybersecurity training activities. There are many ways to determine if an email is malicious, so it’s important that you’re able see all the signs. Showing your employees the characteristics of a phishing email is great to help them detect what’s verified and what’s a scam. Let’s discuss four ways you can detect a phishing email.
Cybersecurity Training: 4 Ways You Can Detect a Phishing Email
1. Check the Sender and Email Address
Double check who sent you the email. Don’t look at just the sender’s name, check the email address too. Usually when we see a sender’s name we recognize, we don’t look at the address. Cybercriminals will use bogus email addresses that don’t even match the sender’s name. Does the email address have a domain name? If it has a public domain, it’s most likely a scam.
2. Look For Spelling and Grammar Errors
Although phishing emails are getting harder to detect, they are normally going to have at least a few spelling or grammar mistakes. Most large businesses will hire copywriters to write their emails, and they use spell check and autocorrect. Any email from a reputable company is going to look professional. Some of these spelling errors are caused from inaccurate translations from another language, or they can be deliberate to attempt to evade filters that try to block these kinds of attacks.
3. What Type of Attachment They Use
The most common types of attachments phishing emails use are .zip, .exe, and .scr. Also, any attachment files like Windows executables, script files, and Office documents are likely to be malicious. If you don’t recognize the type of file, it’s best that you don’t open the attachment.
4. Look At the Company Name
Some reputable companies that are commonly imitated are Google, Dropbox, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. Check the logo in the email, does it look off? Do you have a similar email from the same company you can look at and compare and contrast? Phishing emails can use knock off logos that look close to the real thing, but little differences like font, color, and spacing could determine whether it’s real or not.
With the current global events going on right now, it’s important that you make sure your business is fully secure. You should implement the best security practices, including two-factor authentication and password managers. You also need to educate your team on cybersecurity, including email security.
As cybercriminals become more skilled, it will continue to become harder to spot a phishing email. At Appalachian Network Services in North Carolina, we’re here to help in the fight against cybercrime. From reviewing your cybersecurity strategy, email security services, data protection and more, our experts are ready to help your business.
Schedule a security assessment with one of our experts today.