Protecting your business from phishing scams

Phishing scams are where fraudsters are looking to fool the user into entering their personal information. This is done through a number of methods from pretending to be from your bank or a message or a friend from a social networking site.

Phishing scams are getting more and more sophisticated and are constantly evolving. Therefore it is wise to educate yourself and your employees about the dangers of internet threats in addition to phishing scams. Everyone has to be careful when doing anything online whether that be business use or personal, either way can result in viruses and Trojans affecting company equipment.

Here are some recommendations to protect your business from internet scams. E-mails that are after urgent financial information should be treated as suspicious, investigate before giving out the personal information.

E-mails are normally looking for an immediate reaction so will contain exciting statements or upsetting statements, words that will make you take action straight away. E-mails will be sent out in bulk so are typically not going to be personalised. If it is a genuine message your bank, in most cases nowadays, will have something personally identifiable such as your name or quote part of your personal details. Explain to staff to look for this information before reacting to the message, just because it has the logo of the bank your business uses.

It is always best to call the bank to check if the e-mail was legitimate and as a rule of thumb don't click on an e-mail link, always type the internet address into your internet browser. You can be sure the e-mail is from the right source and wasn't forged if the e-mail is digitally signed.

Further peace of mind comes from always looking for https in the address bar with a padlock down in the bottom right of the screen which denotes a secure website where it is fine to enter personal information. Get more great advice by attending professional conferences such as the Marcus evans conferences.