Phishing has damaged hundreds if not thousands of companies in the digital age, mainly since it targets the most vulnerable aspect of cybersecurity: the human element. To determine if your employees are knowledgeable enough about cybersecurity to prevent phishing, a simulated phishing test—without employee knowledge—might just do the trick.
Though this might leave some of your employees unhappy if they fall for it, it can give you an idea of how safe your company is from such attacks. It is much better for you to know that your employees fall for a simulated phishing attack rather than actual bait.
Just imagine if ten, twenty, or a hundred of your employees submitted their data. It could be nightmarish for your company.
Apart from running phishing tests to determine vulnerability and retraining those who have failed, there are a few things you can teach them to avoid getting baited by phishing emails:
1. Check the domain name
The first thing that an employee must always look at in an email is the domain name. It is after the “@” aspect of the email. There should be no alterations in any way. For example, an employee may know “[email protected]” but received a “[email protected]” instead. Unfortunately, such minor alterations can be subtle enough to slide past inattentive eyes.
The should be considered a red flag, and the domain name should be googled and compared with the company’s name.
2. Look at what the email is asking for
Most, if not all, legitimate companies will never ask for your credentials. In fact, they might state that whenever they send out an email to someone. If an employee finds an email that does ask them to click on a link to log in somewhere, the employee should be extra wary. This is especially the case if there is a sense of urgency in the email. Scammers want to rush people, causing them to misjudge their true intentions and make mistakes.
3. Keep an eye out for grammatical errors
Not all phishing emails have this problem, but many do. As such, training an employee to spot any grammatical errors in an email goes a long way towards stopping attacks. If anything looks out of place, the employee should cross-check it with other emails they have received from the same company and see if the same mistakes were made. Any mistakes or errors are a red flag, and the email should be avoided.
More often than not, your employees are your greatest asset and the weakest element of your security. Employees that are uneducated about cyberattacks can easily fall prey. This can lead to consequences that can affect not just them but their company.
That being said, apart from the tips above, there are many others that employees must remember. Avoiding anything that is too good to be true and suspicious links or attachments will go a long way towards creating a workforce that is educated about the dangers of such attacks. This will significantly reduce your chances of getting breached because of employee mistakes and will lead to secure data.
That being said, do run phishing tests once in a while. Sometimes, employees just need a simple reminder of the dangers of the internet to keep your company safe!
FraudWatch International is a leading online cybersecurity agency protecting clients worldwide from malware, impersonation, phishing, and more since 2003. Work with us today and get protection against phishing!