For small and medium-sized businesses, cyberattacks are tragically common. One of the most common cyberattacks of all is the phishing scam. According to a Proofpoint survey, almost 85 percent of all business organizations dealt with at least one phishing attack in 2022. More than half of businesses dealt with three or more phishing attacks during the same timeframe.

As you’re probably aware, phishing attacks are a type of social engineering scheme, designed to trick people into opening a malicious link or downloading a diabolical attachment. A phishing attack may also try to dupe you into giving up login credentials or other personally identifiable information.

Here’s something that may surprise you: A vast majority of business cyberattacks, and phishing attacks in particular, occur due to an error on the part of the employee. As such, one of the best ways to protect your company from phishing is to train your employees on how to identify and avoid online scams.

How Employees Can Avoid Phishing Attacks

Here are a few guidelines for any employee who wants to be more alert and attentive to potential phishing expeditions.

1) Pay attention to your cybersecurity training.

Hopefully, your company’s IT department provides cybersecurity training on a regular basis, at least once or twice a year (monthly is preferred), and passes along meaningful resources and updates as needed. Be sure you’re dialed into this training and contact IT if you feel have specific questions or want a refresher.

2) Know what to look for.

You’re probably not going to get a lot of the “Nigerian prince” emails that were so common 20 years ago; nevertheless, if you get an email from an unknown sender, it’s usually pretty easy to identify whether or not it’s malicious.

Common signs of phishing emails include:

  • Rampant and significant typos (though drastically reduced with AI)
  • A forged email address from a fake domain
  • A strong sense of urgency, e.g., a passionate appeal to act now or else

3) Don’t engage with suspicious emails.

If you do have an email that you think might be a phishing attack, there are three things you should never do:

  • Reply to it
  • Download attachments
  • Click links contained within (copying and pasting links into your browser is also discouraged)

Any of these activities can potentially result in malware being installed on your device.

4) Avoid sharing data.

Say you get an email that claims to be from your bank, credit card company, utility provider, or other institution. If the email asks you to send along personal or financial information, including passwords or your SSN, that’s a dead giveaway that you’re dealing with a scammer. Remember that legitimate businesses never ask you to share that kind of information over email.

5) Use strong passwords.

The best passwords are randomly generated, 12 characters minimum, contain caps, symbols numbers, and are unique for every login. We also recommend using multi-factor authentication whenever it’s an option.

6) Report phishing scams.

When you receive an email that you think is fraudulent, message your IT team and let them know. Reporting these scams is a good way to ensure IT is keeping their protocols and organization-wide email filtering systems up to date.

Employees are Critical for Keeping Phishing Attacks at Bay

Employees can be a liability, but also a strong defense against cyberattacks. Training and awareness are key. To make sure your employees have the resources they need to keep scammers at bay, don’t hesitate to contact BlueArmor directly.