Remote working has become an established part of the business landscape with millions of employees now working from home. While it\u2019s an opportunity for firms to downsize offices and give staff greater flexibility over how they work, it\u2019s a shift that hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed in the criminal world, with cybercriminals quick to target home workers with phishing attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
A phishing attack is where a cybercriminal targets a business by sending them a fake email pretending to come from a respectable source. The majority of these emails are so obviously fake that most people can spot them; some, however, are so authentic looking that they can easily pass for genuine. When they do, the recipient may unknowingly click on links that download malware and ransomware.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
In a phishing attack, the user is usually told that they need to verify some kind of information and are given a link to follow. The link, however, takes them to a fake website that looks very much like the real thing. When they log into the fake website, their username and password are stolen. The hacker will then use those credentials to gain access to the company\u2019s system. From here, the attacker can impersonate the user in order to steal money, data and intellectual property or carry out other unwanted actions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
As cybercriminals become more sophisticated, it becomes more difficult to spot phishing emails. Training staff on what to look for and giving them regular reminders can massively cut down the risk of an attack being successful. Here are some of the key things to look out for:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Many antivirus programs now come with secure browsing features that users can use. If these are activated and someone clicks on a malicious link in a phishing email, these programmes can often identify the site as dangerous and give the user a warning.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
As a business, it can be helpful if you provide robust anti-virus software for your employees, perhaps getting a multi-user licence. This way, you can ensure everyone has the same level of protection, whether working remotely or in the office and on whatever kind of device they use to access your systems. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Using an advanced spam filter, like SpamExperts<\/a>, can radically reduce the chance of falling victim to a phishing attack or a malware infection. Eliminating 99.98% of all spam, SpamExperts uses self-learning technology to identify not just existing threats, but new ones too, preventing phishing attacks from landing in your remote workers\u2019 inboxes.\u00a0 It does the same for spam, virus, malware and ransomware email attacks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Even if an employee unknowingly gives away their login credentials during a phishing attack, there is much less chance of anything bad happening if you have two-factor authentication (2FA) in place for system logins. With 2FA, not only does someone need the username and password; they will also need a special code that has been sent to the employee\u2019s phone. Unless the attacker has access to the phone, they won\u2019t be able to log in. As the code only works for a few minutes, hackers won\u2019t have time to make many guesses \u2013 especially if your firewall is set up to block users that make too many login errors in a short space of time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n A major phishing scam over recent years and one aimed at businesses is to send fake internal emails that purport to come from senior staff. These often include instructions to carry out activities that put the company at risk. Some have even instructed finance teams to transfer funds to scammers accounts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n These risks can be avoided completely when a business makes use of email security certificates<\/a>. Working in a similar way to SSL certificates, they authenticate that the sender of an email is genuine, whether that\u2019s internal or external email, thus protecting employees, customers, suppliers and partners from phishing. They also encrypt email content so that it cannot be stolen.<\/p>\r\n Not Sure How to Identify Internal Phishing Emails? Learn the tell-tale signs of a phishing email<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n With remote workers increasingly targeted by phishing attacks, it is vital that companies raise their level of protection. Hopefully, the suggestions discussed here can help you keep your remote workers more secure.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n If you are looking for hosting that offers all the benefits of SpamExperts, 2FA and email security certificates, visit our homepage<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Remote working has become an established part of the business landscape with millions of employees now working from home. While it\u2019s an opportunity for firms to downsize offices and give…<\/p>\nProtect accounts by requiring 2FA<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Defend against internal email phishing<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n