For example, you can apply a single-use security code to prevent scammers from accessing an nigeria telemarketing account, even when they have your username and password.
Backup Data Regularly
Taking frequent backups helps smoothen the recovery process if any of your business accounts, files, or devices are compromised following an email phishing attack.
Use a VPN
Activating a virtual private network is essential, especially when you connect to public Wi-Fi networks. It will allow you to conceal your online activities, making it difficult for cybercriminals to extract information by exploiting unsecured internet connections. Choose a reputable VPN or, even better, a decentralized VPN (dVPN) service provider, for enhanced privacy and security.
Key Takeaways
Any business, regardless of its scale, can experience email phishing.
A single phishing attack could expose your enterprise to identity theft and financial fraud, while risking its competitive position and causing significant reputational damage.
However, detecting and preventing such threats is easier with the right precautionary measures.
Adopting verification techniques, avoiding unverified links and attachments, activating email spam filters, installing anti-malware protection, enabling software updates, setting up multi-factor authentication, and using a VPN is critical for this.
Employee training, airtight data protection and security policies, and regular data backups are other critical aspects to focus on to protect your business from email phishing.Links and attachments are widely used phishing techniques in email-led scams.
A malicious link, for example, could direct you to a spoofed website to extract confidential data, such as account passwords. Attachments, on the other hand, can download malware that phishes for information from your devices.
Deploy Email Spam Filters
Email service providers offer filters to automatically detect and block risky emails using terms and phrases common among scam- and spam-related communications.
You can also add extra filters by inputting specific keywords you want to avoid to prevent phishing emails from reaching your inbox.
If you are unsure how to set this up, speak to your IT team for support.
Educate Your Employees
Phishing emails rely on exploiting vulnerabilities in human nature rather than those in security infrastructure. Therefore, generating awareness and conducting training sessions on cybersecurity is critical for equipping your employees to avoid these scams.
For example, explain the prevalence of impersonations and why it is crucial to practice caution with unexpected email requests, even when they seem to originate from familiar individuals.
Deploy Data Protection Policies
Security policies and frameworks allow you to set up consistent practices and protocols to prevent phishing threats and minimize their impact.
They will also provide your employees with essential guidance on accepted business practices and those to avoid.
Ideally, policies should cover password security, information sharing, access controls, and other critical aspects to protect business data.
You could also enforce them with vendors and business partners, where possible, to reduce third-party threats.
Install a Reliable Virus Guard
Criminals can use malware to phish for critical information or deploy a virus to cause greater damage with the help of what was already extracted during a prior email phishing attack.
But when you have anti-virus software, you can identify and block malicious code before it creates harm.
Enable Automatic Software Updates
From your operating systems and mobile apps to word-processing programs, all software products in your devices need regular updates to ensure they are capable of fighting against new kinds of cyber threats.
The easiest way to keep them up-to-date without much hassle is by enabling automatic updates.
