What Is Phishing Awareness?
One rash click has the potential to jeopardize your entire network. It is a continuing commitment to ensure that employees understand how to protect themselves from phishing frauds, how phishing attacks work, and how to recognize and respond to attacks.
Phishing awareness employs actual phishing efforts in a safe and controlled environment, allowing employees to become acquainted with and resistant to the strategies utilized in real phishing attacks.
One careless click can put your entire network at risk. It is important to continuously educate employees on how to protect themselves against phishing scams, understand how these attacks work, and know how to identify and respond to them. To achieve this, phishing awareness training provides employees with realistic phishing scenarios in a secure environment, helping them become familiar with the tactics used in real attacks and strengthening their resilience.
WHY IS PHISHING AWARENESS IMPORTANT!
Is Your Company Safe from Phishing Scams?
Let’s go over the term briefly if you’re unfamiliar with it. Phishing involves sending out misleading material and pretending as a respectable company in order to persuade someone to divulge personal information.
Phishing may take different forms and have many varied purposes. A cybercriminal, for example, could be hunting for personal information or passwords and sending dangerous emails to employees. It’s too late if an employee clicks on any link.
That is why employee training is required. Even if employees click on these links in good faith, they expose your company’s network to ransomware, data breaches, and other threats.
Types of Phishing
- Email Phishing
- Spear Phishing
- Whaling
- Domain Spoofing
- HTTPS Phishing
- Watering Hole Phishing
Protect Yourself & Your Company from Phishing
Is Your Business Protected against Phishing Scams?
If you’re not familiar with the term, let’s take a moment to briefly discuss it. Phishing involves the act of deceiving someone by providing false information and pretending to be a trustworthy company, all in an attempt to persuade them into revealing personal information. Phishing can take on various forms and serve different purposes. For instance, a cybercriminal may seek to obtain personal information or passwords by targeting employees through malicious emails. Once an employee clicks on any of the links, it’s already too late. That’s why it is essential to provide training for employees. Even if employees click on these links with good intentions, it exposes your company’s network to risks such as ransomware, data breaches, and more.
RNR Secure Coding Checklist are
The Dangers of Phishing
The expenses associated with phishing attacks on businesses are increasing at alarming rates. The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) has estimated a staggering 667% surge in phishing scams within a single month during the COVID-19 pandemic—a significant rise compared to previous years. To safeguard your business, protecting your data is of utmost importance, and it all starts with being vigilant. Let’s delve into the essentials of phishing awareness and discover how cybersecurity training can shield your business. By taking precautions against this type of threat, you ultimately save a substantial amount of money in the long term. Small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly prone to cyberattacks, and a single successful attack could result in millions of dollars in damages.
Take Action against Phishing Threats
There are various components involved in a network, but the most important factor is your employees. If your staff doesn’t adhere to best practices, it exposes your company to serious security issues such as phishing threats. In today’s digital era, most businesses heavily rely on their data, which serves as the core of their operations. Your network holds sensitive information like customer credit card details, employee social security numbers, and crucial financial data. And that’s just the minimum. If you operate in the healthcare, insurance, or education sector, your network likely contains even more sensitive information. On average, it takes around 197 days for businesses to identify a breach and another 69 days to mitigate it. Just imagine the extent of potential damage during that time. While having a disaster relief plan is important, prevention is even more essential. It all starts with being aware of the risks and taking necessary precautions.
How to Identify Targeted Phishing
Most people are aware of the common phishing scams, such as the notorious “Nigerian prince” email with broken English and unusual fonts, and know better than to click on the links in those emails. However, some phishing attempts are highly targeted and designed to deceive even the most cautious individuals. Are you confident that your employees would never fall for a cleverly disguised email claiming to be from your paper supply company? That’s why it is crucial to educate your employees about phishing scams. They need to learn how to protect themselves from this type of cybercrime before it’s too late. One effective way to do this is through simulated phishing and social engineering campaigns, such as spear phishing, which specifically targets certain individuals with calculated and advanced techniques. These attacks can be devastating if employees aren’t properly trained, as all it takes is one click on a link to compromise the entire system. By continuously repeating this process and raising awareness, you can develop a skeptical mindset among your staff and effectively prevent the success of phishing emails in the future. Phishing awareness training uses realistic phishing attempts in a controlled environment, providing employees with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with common tactics used in real phishing attacks and build resilience against them.
How to detect Targeted Phishing
Most individuals are undoubtedly aware that they should not click on a link in an email from a “Nigerian prince” written in bad English and a strange typeface. Some phishing schemes, on the other hand, are very targeted.
Are you certain that none of your employees would click on a link in an email purporting to be from your paper supply company? That is why it is critical to educate personnel about phishing scams. Employees must learn how to prevent cybercrime before it is too late.
Learn through simulated phishing and social engineering tactics, such as spear phishing, a premeditated and complex attack directed at specific individuals. Without adequate training, these may be extremely effective, and all you must do is click on a link for it to operate. Repeat this process indefinitely.
Why You Should Establish a Phishing Awareness Program
Phishing, unfortunately, remains the most prevalent form of cyberattack. Hence, it is of utmost importance for employees to be well-informed about the associated risks. While it is commendable for business owners and managers to be vigilant, if a criminal manages to infiltrate your network through any computer within your system, the consequences are equally severe. Your employees act as both your biggest vulnerability and your strongest defense against phishing attempts. Nonetheless, the ability to identify and report phishing attempts requires hands-on experience. Nothing imparts knowledge quite like firsthand encounters.
Why Should You Implement a Phishing Awareness Program?
Unfortunately, phishing is the most common sort of hack, which is why staff must be aware of the dangers. It’s great to be cautious as a business owner or manager, but if a thief gains access to your network via any machine in your system, it’s all the same. Employees are your most vulnerable point, but they may also be your best line of defense against phishing efforts. However, recognizing and reporting phishing attacks requires experience. Nothing beats firsthand knowledge.
Reporting Phishing
Phishing schemes should be reported to your email provider, IT team, and the appropriate government agency as soon as they occur. Keep in mind that fraudsters can create new accounts and scams at any time. That is why it is critical that the appropriate organisations are kept up to date in order to track down and stop these crooks.
Even if you don’t fall for it, someone else will. You may be able to protect someone (including yourself) against future attacks.
Why you should report suspicious emails.
Reduce
Report any suspicious email and you can reduce the number of scam emails you receive.
Protection
By reporting a phishing email, you will help responsible governmental agencies to act quickly, and protect others from cybercrime.
What we do
RNR Red/Blue/Purple strategy allows organizations to actively test their existing cyber defenses and capabilities in a low-risk environment. By engaging these two groups, it is possible to continuously evolve the organization’s security strategy based on the company’s unique weaknesses and vulnerabilities, as well as the latest real-world attack techniques.
