Even with training and vigilance, could you identify every phishing email that comes your way? Thanks to AI and other technology advances, phishing messages, including texts, phone calls, and emails, are becoming harder to spot. Training simply isn’t enough. Cybersecurity services and protocols are necessary to help you and your team spot these fraud attempts and block access to the threats in the event of human error.
Can your team recognize phishing attempts? See why cybersecurity training is a must.
Could You Spot Every Phishing Email?
With spelling errors and obvious attempts at fraud commonplace in phishing emails, it can be easy to feel that you could spot one a mile away. However, it only takes a moment of absentmindedness to click on one of these obvious attempts. Phishing emails often use a sense of urgency to pressure recipients to download files or click links, and it can be easy to fall prey.
Technology is only making it tougher. The fraud attempts can now look more legit than ever before, and even when your team is doing their due diligence, it only takes one mistake. And in the midst of the holidays, the number of phishing emails is only going to rise. One tactic that cybercriminals use is to hack into the email of a trusted senior member of the team and simply send out phishing emails to everyone and anyone in their contact list. Since the email came from someone they trust, recipients are more likely to react to those messages, downloading files, entering in personal information, or sending business funds to a bad actor.
With advancing phishing tactics and human error, training is necessary, but it just isn’t enough.
Cybersecurity Services Can Be Your First Line of Defense
In the event an email of a trusted senior member of a team is compromised, it can be easy for a team to fall like dominoes due to dropped guard.
This hypothetical situation shows how even vigilant team members can fall prey to phishing emails – and how cybersecurity services can work to prevent catastrophe.
Sam, a high-ranking member of a legal team, had his email compromised over the weekend. The bad actor sends out dozens of emails to those in and out of Sam’s network, requesting that recipients click on a link to enter their email address and password. In addition, an email asking for the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) disclosures had been sent to Tom, one of Sam’s current clients, a topic they had previously been discussing.
That Monday morning, Sam acts quickly, working with his IT security services to secure his email and sends out a notification warning recipients of the hack. Tom verifies with Sam that it wasn’t an official GAAP request, but afterwards notes that he did, in fact, click on the link in the hacker’s email!
Thankfully, their security protocols blocked Tom’s access to the malicious link. Tom, when he clicked, was unable to upload data and was instead met with a blank web page.
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IT Security Solutions Help Prevent Human Error
In the case of Sam, Tom, and the rest of their team, it would have been all too easy for the bad actor to gain access to personal information and financial details, due to the fact they compromised a trusted team leader’s email. However, cybersecurity measures put in place before the event were able to stop the hacker in their tracks – at this hypothetical company.
Versions of these events are something we at Nortec see unfold time and time again. And without the right cybersecurity measures in place, businesses and their employees can easily fall prey to this type of threat. As a result of a successful attack, personal information is compromised, payments are sent out to hackers, the customer’s trust is lost, and businesses find it hard to recover.
It’s difficult to say how many companies a single threat actor could target with this type of tactic, but it is obvious that the battle against these types of attacks never ends.
Human error happens. It’s easy to believe an email from a trusted source, especially if they’re asking for documentation that isn’t out of the ordinary, and anyone can fall prey to phishing emails. By having IT security solutions in place, companies can rest assured that they have defenses, even if that recipient should click on that malicious link or try to download that attachment full of ransomware.
Nortec can help organizations like yours go beyond training and truly have protocols that protect you and your team from mistakes and bad actors. We’re here to do battle with you against these threats and keep your network, your data, and your financials secure.
Get ahead of phishing emails once and for all – book your free consultation with Nortec today!