Phishing Emails and How to Avoid Them
Phishing scams is a fraudulent email activity which attempts to obtain sensitive information from the users. Nobody wants to fall prey to the phishing scams and to avoid becoming a victim, being aware of few basic guidelines will help.
1. Identify malicious emails
Malicious mails usually create a sense of urgency and prompt users to send personal information (or) credentials. Never trust emails from the subject line or content of the mail which looks familiar. Beware of all the emails with attachments or links, which are the most common attack vector.
2. Never give personal information
Never share sensitive information over the email. Always verify the URL and be alert to the address of the website where we drop our information. Most of the companies or banks never ask personal details or sensitive information via mail.
3. Think before you click
Clicking on links that appear in random emails and instant messages isn’t a smart move. The link may contain misleading typos, such as yovtube.com instead of youtube.com. Hovering mouse pointer over the links helps in evaluating the authenticity of link. Use online tools such as Netcraft for identifying the domain information.
4. Aware of new Phishing Techniques
Phishing techniques are being developed every day to get sensitive information, which can cause huge disruptions to the business. Basic security awareness program must be developed and every employee must be educated on how the fraudulent activity is being performed.
5. Use Hosted Email Security
It’s better to use hosted email security for your mail sever, to quarantine the suspicious emails automatically and an incident responder for manual testing. Prefer using sand-box secured web browsers as an incident responder. Having high-quality firewalls on the servers would also help us.
Almost 97% of people around the globe cannot identify a sophisticated phishing email. Being aware of this kind of attacks, verifying and limiting what you disclose will make it less risky for us.
