Cyber threats constantly evolve. Because of this constant evolution it can be difficult to keep up with them. One cyber threat is a phishing email.
A phishing email is designed to infect your device. The phisher (scammer) wants to steal your personal and financial data for their own benefit. They will also steal your customers data, your co-workers data, and any other piece of information they can benefit from at the expense of other people.
Specific Categories of Phishing Emails
– Spear phishing: a targeted phishing email to a specific recipient.
– Whaling: a phishing email targeting high-profile individuals including C-suite individuals.
– Smishing: A phishing attack via text targeting mobile devices.
– Content injection phishing: an attack with malicious code within the email.
– Man-in-the-middle-phishing: an attack where the hacker impersonates a legitimate service or provider you are transacting with.
Because of the 2020 pandemic, more people are working and shopping from home. As such, phishing emails as well as other cyber scams have been on an alarming rise. It is important for businesses and consumers alike to take measures to educate and protect themselves from the cyber scammers.
Steps to Take to Prevent and Plan for Phishing Emails
– Incident response plan. This document should be communicated with shareholders and layout how your company will respond to a suspected or confirmed cyber threat. Describing the roles and responsibilities of management in the event of an incident.
– Work with IT to confirm firewalls, virus software – antivirus software, and hardware are up to date.
– Educate employees on what red flags to look for to avoid a cyber event.
– Are you familiar with the sender? Is the email address legit? Do you know this person? Have you ever exchanged emails with them before? Are they asking you to do something out of the ordinary?
– Are there numerous spelling errors in the email? Hackers are notoriously bad spellers. However, that doesn’t mean they’ll never learn how to turn their spell check on…
– Is there a high sense of urgency? Compromised phishing links only last for a short amount of time – typically less than 24 hours.
For more tips on recognizing and avoiding phishing emails visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website. If you have come in contact with a suspected phishing email forward it to the Anti-Phishing Working Group at reportphishing@apwg.org. This group works to combat scammers that try to lure out your personal and financial data through phishing emails.
Protecting Your Business from Cyber Crime
If you are worried about cyber scams affecting your business you should consider coverage options such as cyber liability insurance. This type of coverage helps you deal with expenses incurred from a data breach or data hack. A data hack can cost a business time, money, and reputation. Protection from this risk is important for any business that promotes itself as a trustworthy reliable company. Especially, if your company keeps any sensitive customer data such as email lists or credit card records.
Wondering if your business is at an increased risk for cyber attacks? Contact us at Konen Insurance and we can advise you on how to protect your business and discuss coverage options that may benefit you. We work with multiple insurance carriers to offer our clients the best insurance options tailored to their specific needs.
