Avoiding phishing scams

Businesses with employees working remotely must consider digital security measures to protect their business assets and the safety of their employees. Phishing scams are a particularly prominent security issue, especially for employees working with their personal devices and networks that may be insecure. Phishing scams are designed to steal information through mediums such as emails or social media posts, using hackers posing as a legitimate and trustworthy source that asks for your personal details. To protect your staff from these attacks, consider the following measures:

Identification of phishing attacks
Awareness is a key factor in identifying and avoiding phishing attacks. Some key characteristics of phishing scams to look out for are:

• They are asking you to verify your bank account details and password via a link and website.
• They are asking you to confirm your details for a maintenance upgrade or as part of a security check.
• Their email or text message includes spelling or grammatical errors.
• A bank or financial institution is asking you to verify your bank account details even though you are not a customer.
• They do not include your full name in their email or text message, or have no specific addressee.

Teach staff what to do
After your employees have identified the phishing attacks, make sure that they:

• Don’t click on any suspicious links sent to them.
• Never give away their personal or business information to sources that aren’t verified.
• Block the sender of phishing emails or text messages to prevent future attacks.

Use antivirus software
Signing up for antivirus software for your employees’ devices may prove to be a worthwhile investment. Antivirus software can prevent phishing attacks from escalating and becoming damaging. When using antivirus software, it is important to keep up with regular updates to ensure security measures are up to scratch.

Encourage communication
To decrease the risks of an employee giving confidential information to phishing scammers, encourage open dialogue between staff about third party emails. If employees double-check email addresses and links amongst each other, it can help them identify what is legitimate or not. Employees can also alert other staff members when they receive a suspicious email asking for business information to spread caution.