Phishing Prevention – Top Tips For Your Business
At one time, businesses worried about data breaches due to a careless employee. But today, 48% of data breaches occur because of intentional, targeted and effective malicious activity. One in 10 phishing schemes today is purely intended to disrupt business operations.
Having strong phishing prevention strategies in place is key to staying safe as an organization. And you don’t just need one safety measure. We’ve gathered the tops tips for thwarting these malicious attacks.
1. Create a Reporting Culture
The first step to phishing prevention is to make it clear that you need employees to report suspicious activity. If one employee received a strange email, chances are others did too. They need to know that phishing attack prevention starts with them.
When they make management aware of a phishing attempt, others in the organization become more aware and are less likely to fall for an attempt.
2. Stop It Before It Reaches the Inbox
Phishing attacks are clever. They know just what to say to get someone to click. Your boss’ boss needs you to do something ASAP. Someone from that meeting last week just sent you that link to that great resource they promised.
The fewer people who see phishing emails the better, so phishing prevention best practices include establishing and maintaining a strong spam filter on all devices.
3. Re-Inforce Individual Spear Phishing Prevention Methods
These include things like:
- Creating strong passwords
- Changing passwords regularly
- Encrypting sensitive information like account numbers and financial information
4. Enforce Safety Protocols
You can tell people all day long to change their passwords, but many won’t do it. Put technology in place to support your phishing prevention efforts. Force password changes periodically. Set guidelines for a strong password and do not allow people to use weak ones.
5. Upgrade Your Antivirus
No phishing prevention tips are complete without talking about your firewall and antivirus. Despite your best efforts, people are human and someone will click on phishing links from time to time. Reducing the damage those links can do makes smart business sense.
This may involve buying new antivirus software or more effectively using your existing email and antivirus settings to prevent malicious downloads to local computers.
Phishing Prevention
Phishing attacks are becoming more strategic and disruptive every day. But if you follow these tips, you can keep these criminals out of your business.
