5 Ways to safeguard your business from spear phishing

Your business is endangered by phishing attacks, no matter what size it is. As per the 2016 State of SMB Security Report, half of the 28 million small businesses in the US have been ruptured. And the strange part was most of these attacks begin with an email with a venomous link or attachment. 

Last year, one of the renowned examples was a scam that sent phony "shipping information" to 3k small businesses. Pretending to be from UPS, an email had a link that claimed to be tracking information; but it accommodates malware that contaminates many computers. 

A small business likely does not have an IT department or a big budget, and it can be hard to make out precisely what to do about phishing susceptibilities. But do not bother. An IT consulting firm provides the best and up-to-the-mark ways to safeguard your small business from phishing attacks.  

Before jumping to ways to prevent spear phishing, let us understand more about spear phishing with a real-life example.

A real-life example: 

A CEO gets an email that looks like it came from the CFO. It was showing CFO's signature block at the middle of the email and the CFO's name recognized as the "sender." The email asks the CEO to transfer $100,000 to a bank account. 

Thinking that this is the rational request from the CFO, the CEO transfers the money. Later, he learns that he has moved the money into a cybercriminal's account and is not able to recuperate the funds.

Spear phishing may also ask for liable or intimate information, such as account numbers, passwords, and access codes. With it, they can ingress your company's bank account, use your credit cards and develop a whole new identity using your information.  

It is high time now safeguard your business from spear phishing with the five proven ways: 

Keep your software up-to-date

It is also essential to ensure every computer you are using has the upgraded version of all the software, including Internet browsers. This is because many worms and other types of malware exploit susceptibilities that the new updates fix. 

However, you need to be very circumspect of fake update warnings cleverly feigned by the malware. Therefore it is advisable to update the software timely and keenly.

Apply stronger procedures

Develop company policies and procedures to fight shy of being the victim of spear-phishing attempts. This may include: 

• Incorporates strict internal processes that would catch fraudulent requests. For instance: Before transferring funds, require a two-factor authentication process. Contact the CEO who is asking for the fund transfers and ask for the secondary verbal communication of the request before proceeding. 

• Working with your bank that only certain people access accounts. Also, requiring a bank to do a validation check on requests requires two people to sign off on account-related activity. 

Along with that, keep the reliable security service Corpus Christi in place so that you can have the best possible outcomes in no meantime.

Provide accurate training to your employees

When the employees are not aware of the actual dangers and think that it is not vulnerable because the business is small. The best way to do this is to organize educational seminars or use an existing one that can teach how to identify and avoid clicking on suspicious emails and other critical and practical tips relating to such malware attacks. 

A piece of advice :  Understand Ransomware vs malware what is more dangerous  

Filter your emails frequently

Having a system that filters incoming emails enables you to block obvious spam automatically, and phishing emails are a must. Here also opt for the backup as a service as it will create a copy of your data that can be recovered in the event of a primary data failure such as { Viruses or Malwares } or accidental deletion of data.

Contemplate the content of emails

Scammers often run phishing attacks from other countries. While many phishing scams are quite knowledgeable and smart, many make mistakes that are easy to catch if you pay close attention to the grammar, spellings, and content, and images that are not "right" are common red flags. 

Enhance your email protection and cybersecurity with LayerOne Networks 

Data security has become a serious matter of concern for all the businesses out there. The malware attacks are rising day by day. It is impossible to place the things intact that's why the IT consulting firms are there to rescue. The experts from IT consulting firms provide you the best and most effective services that can help you protect your business from any suspicious attacks.!