Phishing Attacks – What to Know

Phishing attacks are on the rise and can result in company breaches if not identified properly by users.  The best way to prevent a phishing attack is to know how to identify a potential attack.  We have some telltale ways to identify if an email may be phishing.

6 Ways To Identify A Phishing email

1. The email is sent from a public domain

Including domains like @gmail.com or the domain does not match your company domain.

Example: An email from a COUPLE of GURUS would come from the domain @acoupleofgurus.com.  If you received an email from [email protected] the email is not legitimate.

2. The domain name is not spelled correctly

Often times the person sending the email will use a domain that looks almost like the correct domain but the domain is off by 1 letter.Example: [email protected] could be by someone attempting to phish you as [email protected] (notice the word “guru” is not plural).

3. The email may be poorly written

Always watch for punctuation, grammatical mistakes and spelling mistakes.

4. Watch for suspicious attachments

If you normally do not get an invoice sent to you by a vendor but all of a sudden an email comes through from the finance department with an invoice, do not open it.  The attachment may contain malware.

Pro Tip: If you receive an email with an attachment and you are unsure if you should open the attachment, call the person who the email is from to confirm if they sent the email and attachment.

5. Watch for suspicious links

The same process should be followed as in the attachment pro tip.

6. The email comes through expressing urgency

The scammer is trying to cause you to panic and not allow you to focus and think through logical steps.  Take a moment to step back and analyze the situation before acting.

The best way to prevent phishing attempts is to always be on alert when reviewing emails.  There are phishing awareness programs (End User Security Awareness Training) available that can be shared with an organization that send out simulated phishing emails to employees and report back on the number of clicks.  This type of program keeps your employees on their and teaches you along the way. If you’re interested in such a program, we’d love to talk! Just contact us to get started.