Phishing

noun

the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, online.

Have you ever received an email with:

• An amazing offer ?
• An urgent email from a parcel deliver company, even though you weren’t waiting on a delivery ?
• A friendly soul, who wants to give you thousands in return for  a prayer ?
• An attachment from a bank do you’t deal with?

Welcome to the world of “Phishing” these are the email versions of scams, their purpose is to get you, to click on thier links or go to their fake sites, normally so that they can steal your identity, or entice you into installing viruses or malware onto your computer.

So, how do you know if an email is suspicious?

• The from name and email address on close inspection do not seem genuine.
• The email is addressed to some generic group, such as “Dear friend”, or “valued customer” instead of your real name of a mailing group that you would normally be part of.
• The email has an urgent tome, catching your attention and tries to get you to act with out thinking.
• The email has bad grammar or poor spelling.
• It has a .zip or a .rtf file attached to the email.
• The email from the Bank, is not the one you actually bank with, also, 99.99% of the time, your bank is not going to email you.
• The email has links for you to verify your password.

THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK!

Spear Phishing is a targeted version of Phishing. Due to our dependancy  on email and internet connectivity in the workplace, there is no guaranteed way to stop a determined intruder from accessing an office network.

• Spear Phishing is a targeted form of email deception.
• Spear Phishing has a high success rate and its use as a means of attack looks set to continue.
• By clicking on that link, you could expose your companies network to malware, spyware, viruses, and even ransom software that could completely destroy your company’s Data,
• It could cost you your job.