Top 10 Tips to Protect Yourself from Phishing Attacks
There is a reason why these attacks are becoming so frequent and why companies are facing so much difficulty. This is because there are endless ways that cybercriminals can benefit from such attacks. According to statistics, companies lose billions of dollars in email fraud, up from a loss of $1.3 billion last year.Even with advanced security technologies, companies are still faced with phishing emails, which often infiltrate our firewalls to our inboxes. And the high click-through rate indicates that this problem should be resolved as soon as possible.
Here are the top 10 tips that can help you stay safe.
#1. Think before you clickх.
Those are the days when mysterious emails started with "Hello, I'm the son of a prince from Zambia ...".
To make it look more sophisticated, today's phishing emails also contain links that send you to websites very similar to those of officials. Clicking on the various links that may come in your inbox is probably not a smart idea. A better option is to avoid any link at all costs and manually search for the official website link from a secure browser. There have been cases where cybercriminals have disguised themselves as employees seeking confirmation of specific details or changing something through a link.
#2. Expect the unexpected
It is often the case that phishing attacks are disguised as documents or emails from someone you might expect an answer from, such as banks that may ask you to change your password, or even from a company employee.
Make sure you check before downloading any attachments, checking the sender's email carefully and be careful of the strings that specify that downloading them is high risk. Sometimes the sender's email is very similar to the real person's, so the best option is to scan your trusted antivirus.
#3. Legitimate companies never ask for sensitive information via email
Never give too sensitive information via email. Chances are you may be getting an email asking for your ID, credit card numbers, or any other sensitive information, you must understand that it is fraud.
If the information is indispensable, we recommend logging into the website through a secure network and registering the required information.
#4. See communication and grammatical errors
One of the easiest ways to identify whether an email is fraud or not is to check if there are serious grammatical errors. Hackers are not stupid, as they attack people of different profiles, and necessarily change the way of communication in order to communicate more easily with a wider population.
#5. Serious companies do not necessarily need to download spam
You may notice that some emails point you to a fake website when you click on the link, and a giant hyperlink appears in front of your eyes asking you to download spam attachments. They might ask you to open a non-secure website when you click on them. We advise you not to click, as you will undoubtedly fall prey to the next trick.
#6. Check the sender's email domain
If the email address does not match an authentic company offering the service or is different from emails previously sent by the company in question, be aware that you are dealing with a fraud, a phishing attack!
#7. Check if the link of a text is a real URL
Check all URLs associated with the text several times. If there is any URL not identical to the URL displayed, this is a sign that you may be sent to a fake website.
The fact that a site may have SSL does not mean that it is linked to a legitimate site, as SSL / TSL certifications serve to encrypt links between browsers and servers, which prevent hacker attacks.
So to find out if a website is secure we need to make sure to check the URLs associated with it.
#8. Beware of personal and intimate attacks
Promises of winning millions of dollars through lotteries are tactics that have long been used and people have already understood. You may like to check these FirstRowSports Alternatives that may be useful to you! But what has evolved is precisely this point, as hackers today try to take advantage of your fears or worries, enabling them to secure sensitive information from you.
It is not just banks and banking services that fraudsters use for this tactic, they also use government agencies or national agencies to obtain information from you.
#9. Stay alert at any moment
Most phishing attacks target broad audiences with the aim of stealing as much general information as possible. But don't think personalized attacks don't happen. There have been a number of cases where hackers have attacked specific individuals who may have been studying them for a long time, waiting for their vicious moment to attack. So our advice is to stay informed at all times and be careful with whom you share sensitive information, as the attacker may be very close to you.
#10. Install anti-phishing tools
Today many browers are coupled with tools which can scan different pages to see if they are fraudulent pages. If you accidentally click on a link that leads to a fake site, these tools are automatically activated and alert you to the security of such sites.
Antiviruses are also fantastic tools to detect harmful files. These software can scan all your documents that are transferred online. Firewalls and anti-spyware tools can give you another layer of security. But after all, there is no way to insure 100% of any potential risk from email fraud. But what we as individuals can do is to reduce as much risk as we can.
So these are our top 10 tips to protect yourself from phishing attacks! Hope you found this article useful. You may check daily neoadviser.com for more posts like this!