Phishing scams have become quite popular in recent times, tricking users into unknowingly providing sensitive information to hackers. Users can quickly find that they have lost access to accounts or that there has been authorized use of credit card details.

Phishing is the attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Phising is most common with emails, where the sender can disguise themselves as a particular person by either setting the senders name or by using a compomised email account of a trustworthy person. However phishing can come in many forms such as SMS or instant messaging.

A hacker could pretend to be a online shop retailer asking the user to update their bank details or a website asking for the user to update their password.

Here are few guidelines to help employees be smart about phishing e-mails:

Training - Train employees to be suspicious of any e-mail that asks for personal information – whether their own or that of others.
Update - Make sure employees don’t delay updating your browser and antivirus.
Protection - Make sure your antivirus suite involves phishing protection.
Caution - Don’t provide personal information via e-mail. If you must and it appears from a boss or co-worker, check the source and make sure the origin is correct. An employee can always pick up the phone and double-check that their boss or co-worker really sent the message. Remember not to get mad at an employee for calling to check – they’re being responsible!
Secure - If you do have to enter personal information from work (things happen and life doesn’t always wait until you’re home), make sure that the URL begins with “https://” (Hyper Text Transfer ProtocolSecure) and that the URL is spelled correctly. Make sure a lock icon appears beside the URL. You can click on this to see the website’s security certificate.
Report - Report suspicious messages as phishing scams. If they’re related to your company, make sure they’re collected by IT. If your IT department sees a pattern of phishing attempts, they may be able to identify the beginnings of a targeted hack against your company.

For more information about how you can ensure that you have enterprise quality IT security in Ireland get in contact with us via email at info@worksmart.ie or by phone at 01 253 0480.

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