Simplifying phishing attack protection for businesses

Cybersecurity threats and concerns cannot be taken for granted. Sensitive information, if hacked, can have a cascading impact on your business. Your company needs to think beyond compliance when it comes to addressing and fixing security vulnerabilities, and one of the key concerns is related to phishing attacks. Hackers use a wide range of social engineering techniques for causing phishing attacks, but the best part is your company can prevent the same. In this easy post, we take a look at the top tested practices for phishing attack protection. 

1. Start with your employees. Employees play the most critical role in ensuring information security, and you will grateful later that you spent on cybersecurity training and workshops. There are many companies that can actually help you handle employee training, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. 
2. Discuss about types of phishing attacks. A hacker may choose to send an email with a suspicious link or download, may redirect you to another site, or sometimes, send a resource that may seem authentic but contains malware like trojans. Discuss with your teams as how phishing attacks occur, so that proactive approaches and steps can be taken.
3. Establish basic rules. Firstly, ask employees to report all phishing emails and scam senders. Ensure that there is a second of third layer of protection for passwords. Thirdly, use a spam filter that’s reliable and place all networked devices behind firewalls. Ensure that your employees are aware of how to handle a phishing email, or report an incident. 
4. Focus on updates. Ensure that all firmware, software, and apps are updated to the latest version. This is important because you can prevent hackers from exploiting security vulnerabilities. Also, if you have old legacy software on your devices, get rid of the same. 
5. Safe browsing is key. Phishing attacks occur because employees often are not sure of which link to click. As more employees work from home, and others use their personal devices to access company resources, things are only likely to get more complicated. Make sure that you have a fair list of recommendations on how to browse safely, and establish BYOD policies. 

With a few extra steps, you can prevent phishing attacks. It actually doesn’t take a lot for any company to avoid hackers. The aftermath of a phishing incident can be a lot more damaging than what you would spend on antimalware, employee training, and other measures combined.