How to Take the Sting Out of a Phishing Attack

We talk a lot about phishing on this blog, and for good reason. It makes up a significant portion of today’s cyberthreats, irrespective of size or industry. Today, we want to highlight how your business can protect itself from phishing attacks and keep their impacts to a minimum. We’ll dive into some details about phishing schemes and the solutions you can implement to keep your business safe.

On Phishing and Its Impacts

Phishing is a subset of cyberattacks that try to convince users to hand over sensitive information, like passwords and financial data, by impersonating entities the user would trust. A successful phishing attack can lead to a stolen identity, compromised accounts, financial losses, and legal ramifications.

The Many Types of Phishing Attacks

Email is the most popular phishing attack, with other forms that include spear phishing, whaling, smishing, and vishing, each targeting specific users within a business network.

The Price of Falling Prey to Phishing Attacks

The losses associated with a phishing attack can be considerable, especially if the breached data involves financial data or a loss of consumer trust.

Effective Ways to Neutralize Phishing Attacks

To fight back against phishing attacks, you’ll need to take an approach involving various elements and solutions. These include employee education, technical solutions, and organizational culture building. Here are some of the challenges you might encounter during this process:

Employee Training and Education

Since phishing attacks target your employees, you must educate them on determining the risk of various messages and throwaway signs. You should also tell them to avoid clicking on links and how they can report phishing attempts.

Powerful Email Filtering

Ideally, you prevent employees from having to see spam messages in the first place through email filtering systems that block suspicious messages.

Multi-Factor Authentication

MFA provides one more layer of security that can help you keep accounts safe from scammers. Even if credentials are stolen, you’ll have a contingency plan to keep hackers out of your accounts.

Routine Software Updates

Ensure you constantly update your software with security patches and performance updates to ensure vulnerabilities do not go unresolved.

A Culture of Security

Building your business’ culture of cybersecurity will help to continuously encourage the reporting of suspicious messages.

Advanced Penetration Techniques

You can implement simulated phishing tests to make sure your team is following your cybersecurity guidance. Regular testing can also help you address more advanced threats.

Cultivating Resilience

If you plan to experience these issues, you can build up the capacity to resist them, like data backup strategies and legal compliance.

An Organizational Commitment

Your entire business must understand that phishing prevention is everyone’s responsibility—not just your IT department.

Washington Works can help you build the best and most resilient security infrastructure. To learn more, call us at 301-571-5040.