Several years ago, computer viruses were the only thing that played on the mind of most businesses.
Now, times have changed. Cybercriminals have got smarter than ever before, meaning business need to be even smarter. This has led to cyber security becoming a booming industry, with some investment companies like C5 Capital, set up by security expert Andre Pienaar, focusing their investments solely in cyber security and cloud computing.
There are many threats to cyber security out there, with phishing being one of the most pervasive threats.
In short, phishing is the practice of deceiving a user into handing over sensitive data. This is quite often passwords, but it can even span to financial information.
Suffice to say, it’s a complex practice, and can fool even the savviest individuals. This is the reason we have penned today’s post, as we now take a look at some of the ways you can tackle phishing from your business’s point of view.
Be Shrewd With Your Email Provider
As we will soon find out, a lot of the onus rests on you when it comes to protecting yourself against phishing.
However, choosing the right partners can also assist your business. Some email providers are better than others at flagging when something looks suspicious in your inbox and in a bid to help your employees, this should be something that you look into in more detail.
The Think-Twice Policy
Next, it’s all about the actions that you take. If something hits your inbox which looks somewhat suspicious, don’t take the risk.
It’s at this point that phishing isn’t your top priority – it also spans to other issues like viruses and even ransomware. As we have found out through some high-profile stories, it takes just one bad click to bring a whole company down.
As such, check if the email is from a verified source and if you are unsure, look to interact with them. If something still doesn’t sit quite right with you, ask your IT team to take a look at things.
This is the advice that should be passed on to every member of staff in your organization.
Keep Varied Passwords
Sure, we all have a go-to password, but from a phishing perspective at least this is terrible practice.
If the worst does happen and your “main” password does get into the wrong hands, it naturally prompts a whole host of repercussions that might affect everything from your email to your online banking.
Keep everything separate, and the risk is mitigated.
Have Defined Financial Policies
Sometimes, you don’t even have to have IT principles to guard yourself against phishing – it can sometimes relate directly to how you process payments.
Considering the fact that a lot of phishing scams specifically target finances, make it company policy not to provide any financial details to other companies over email. And, if they demand any payment over a browser, check the website credentials and ensure it is secure. Today many commonly-used browsers will flag when site isn’t secure, however, make sure you invest in other common-sense checks as well.