Email Security

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a technique of Cyber Criminals. It’s how they attempt to gain access to your personal or company’s information. They send you an email posing as your bank, vendors or even someone in your own company, asking for credentials via attachments or weblinks – some might even pose as your Company CEO asking for invoices to be paid, wire transfers, purchase of gift cards etc. If you are not expecting an email that is asking for information, be suspicious!

Generally, a phishing email tries to get the victim to do one of two things:

1. Hand over sensitive information. These messages aim to trick the user into revealing important data — often a username and password that the attacker can use to breach a system or account.
2. Download malware. Like a lot of spam, these types of phishing emails aim to get the victim to infect their own computer with malware
   

How can you prevent being “Phished”?

Be Wary of Unknown Senders

Whenever you receive a personal email from someone you don’t know, be extremely cautious. Phishers sometimes like to impersonate legitimate companies and people to steal login credentials and other personal information, but they can succeed only when they successfully lure you in and make you do what they want you to do.

Be Wary of suspicious emails from Known Senders.

If you receive an email from a CEO, HR or other hi-ranking individual asking for a wire transfer, your credentials or to open an attachment you were not expecting – verify by another method that it is legitimate and do not click on any links or attachments.

Look for Bad Grammar and Improper Spelling

Long gone are the days of Nigerian princes asking for small loans in exchange for millions of dollars, but phishing emails with bad grammar and improper spelling are still very common.

Avoid Suspicious Attachments

Legitimate organizations seldom send emails with attachments. If you were not expecting the attachment, be suspicious!

How Can I Avoid Being Phished?

EMD can help you in two ways. First, we have email protection services that will catch phishing emails before they reach your users. These security services do a lot more also, like reduce the amount of spam you get and prevent viruses from reaching your Inbox. Second, we can setup safe email phishing campaigns to test your users. This will allow you to know which users need to be further educated so they don’t put your company at risk. It will provide reports showing which users opened suspicious emails, clicked on attachments or links, and what data they provided during the process.

To sign up or get more information about our email security services, simply fill out our contact form here!

Here are some additional resources from Microsoft on email dangers:

• Phishing dangers!
• Online Scams and Attacks
  

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