It’s definitely one of the biggest threats to your data: phishing. Hard to recognize, and the consequences can be disastrous. Yet it’s relatively easy to protect your colleagues against phishing. We will highlight several quick wins that significantly reduce the risk of damage due to this misery.
What exactly is phishing?
The literal meaning of phishing is ‘angling’ for privacy-sensitive data. This ‘angling’ is often done via fake e-mails in which the house style of, for example, banks has been copied. These e-mails often ask you to open an attachment, share financial data or click on a link. Then malicious parties will run off with your data, which can lead to substantial financial damage and even identity fraud. With these tips you can prevent that:
- Train your colleagues
Phishing is particularly dangerous because colleagues simply don’t recognize it as cybercrime. It is essential to know that banks will never ask for financial details by e-mail. If you receive a questionable e-mail, check the sender. The sender’s e-mail address often says it all; also, spelling errors are not a rarity in phishing e-mails. Do you keep having doubts? Delete the mail and notify your IT administrator. Prevention is better than cure; we are happy to support you with training or a workshop! - Use the right security tools
Training is super important, but so are technical measures. A good example of this is Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), a security tool within Microsoft 365. This tool allows you to take all kinds of measures to secure your e-mail and internet super strong. Not only that; ATP stays up-to-date because it teaches itself to recognize new threats based on global user data. That’s handy because it keeps you well protected.
- Update your security regularly
Updating your security is also very important to reduce the risk of phishing. After all, updates plug vulnerabilities in your tools, so threats are less likely to cause damage. If an update is available, roll it out immediately. The faster you do this, the less risk you run. Would you prefer this to happen automatically on your workstations, servers and firewalls; with workplace management you make sure you don’t miss an update! - Go for strong passwords
It is almost incomprehensible, but passwords like ‘123456’ are still widely used. They are outright invitations for cybercriminals to browse through your data. Therefore, secure each service with a separate and super strong password. The longer your password and the more unique characters, the more difficult it is to crack; making it a lot more difficult for cybercriminals to crack the code. Multi factor authentication can also be a perfect addition to make logging in a lot more secure.
Also always start working safely?
Want to know more about how to make your cloud workstations safer? We can arrange that for you. We don’t do that with one-size-fits-all solutions, but with personal, tailor-made advice. Please contact us to make an appointment.