Don’t Take the Bait: Everything You Need to Know About Phishing
You’re scrolling through your email, and suddenly you notice an unread message with a frantic headline: URGENT ACTION REQUIRED.
What’s wrong? Your adrenaline starts to rush, and you click. In an instant, you’ve fallen prey to a phishing scam.
Phishing scams are extremely common forms of cybercrime, and it is important you for to protect your business.
If you have a good spam filter, a lot of phishing scams will never make it to your inbox, but celito can help you take your business’ internet security to the next level.
celito is your local managed service provider (MSP provider). We are a hands-on team of IT support in Raleigh, NC that provides the enhanced security, better internet solutions, and accessibel support that your business needs.
What Is Phishing?
Phishing is a cybercrime that uses a variety of methods, including email, text messages, and phone calls, to convince victims to divulge sensitive data, such as credit card details, social security numbers, or passwords.
With this information, phishers are able to access your personal online accounts, commit identity theft, and drain bank accounts.
Phishers pose as representatives of legitimate institutions. They may use an email address or logo that mimics a particular business or bank with slight changes that differentiate themselves from the business’ actual email server.
There are a few common types of phishing:
- Email phishing: an email with urgent wording that encourages you to click a link, download an attachment, or fill out an entry form
- Malware phishing: an email phishing attack that delivers malware to your computer, such as a virus, ransomware, or spyware.
- Voice phishing (Vishing): a phone phishing tactic where a criminal impersonates a company representative
- SMS phishing (Smishing): a text message phishing technique that can compromise your phone’s role in multi-factor identification
- Spear phishing: a phishing attack targeted at a specific individual
- Business email compromise (BEC): an tactic where the criminal claims to be a company executive, vendor, or supplier
- Whaling: a highly specific phishing attack aimed at a high-profile individual
- Social media phishing: a subcategory of spear phishing where the criminal uses social media research to collect details on the target
- Search engine phishing: a technique where cybercriminals use search-engine optimization to make a phishing website show up in the first page of internet search engine results
- Clone phishing: a subcategory of email phishing where legitimate links are replaced with phishing links.
- Malvertising: a fake advertisement containing phishing links
- Pharming: a phishing tactic that redirects users away from a legitimate website to a phishing website
How To Recognize and Avoid Phishing
With so many types of phishing out there and more and more sophisticated cybercrime techniques created every day, you have to be on guard.
Thankfully, there are a few easy, practical steps that you can take to protect yourself and your business from phishing scams:
- Do not open suspicious emails. If you think you know the sender, contact them separately to see if they sent the email.
- Double-check the sender’s email to see if it is connected to the company it is claiming to come from.
- Do not click any suspicious links, download any unexpected attachments, or fill out any forms asking for sensitive information.
- Avoid offers that seem too good to be true, such as free trips or a large cash prize.
- Be wary of emails that stress urgent action.
- Before clicking links, hover your cursor over them to see where they are actually sending you.
- Do not divulge any sensitive information over email.
- Use a spam filter.
- Keep your browser updated.
- Disable pop-ups.
- Choose strong passwords, change them frequently, and avoid using the same password for multiple accounts.
- Enable multi-factor authentication for sensitive accounts.
Phishing is always evolving, so the number one way to protect your business is to hire an IT consulting company to serve as your MSP provider and improve your internet security.
IT Consulting in Raleigh with celito
celito provides top-notch IT consulting in Raleigh, NC. With us, you can rest assured knowing that your business’ IT is secure and efficient.
How do we stand-out from other IT consulting companies? We are Raleigh born, Raleigh grown, and we take care of our community.
When you hire celito for your IT consulting in Raleigh, we do a complete audit to discover how we can optimize your office with easy onboarding, device management, and help desk services.
Then, we provide top-notch service informed by our core values:
- Positive energy
- Drive
- Understanding of value
- Ability to inspire
- Appreciation of structure
To see how celito can transform the way you see IT, contact us today!
