Phishing and Spear Phishing: Can you protect yourself?

At one time or another I bet we’ve all been the targets of phishing attacks.  These are genuine sounding emails with an important message cleverly crafted with a need for an urgent action to be taken by the receiver, or an incredible offer too tempting to ignore. These emails have a link too.  Cybercriminals  send them out in millions with the certainty that at least a few will fall victim to this scam.

What happens when you click on the link?  You are taken to a maliciously coded site that will attack your computer or harvest the username and password.  The rest are pretty easy for the hacker.

Spear Phishing is the same, but targeted toward a particular group of people who the criminals are intersted in attacking.  The focus is on the victim’s confidential, personal or corporate information. The spear phishing hackers attack targets after doing extensive research on the victim’s social media sites, LinkedIn sites, or personal Web sites.

• The best way to protect onself is to not post personal details on the social media sites.  This will limit the information that’s easily available to the world.
• If there are any doubts at all about the sender, the information within the email, the links or attachments, do not open the email.  Simply mark them as spam and trash them.
• Finally, following basic security standards. If you suspect something, make other people aware of the email and report to the security head, so immediate actions can be taken.

Data security is very important in today’s world as cybercriminals are ahead of the technology curve in finding new ways to hack, and any breach of personal or company data is capable of destroying the individual’s identity or an organization’s business.  Contact Omega for more information on securing data at your organization.