Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022—Common Phishing Attacks Your Business Could Face
Did you know that cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated each day with the attacks that they perform? How do you strive to improve your cybersecurity and bring awareness to your staff? Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022 helps to promote vital cybersecurity information throughout the month of October. Companies can utilize this information to help clients, leadership and even staff to learn more about cybercriminals and the threats that they can cause.
Besides focusing on behaviors that are important for your business to follow—like common practices and tips to keep you safe online—you can also familiarize yourself with common cyberattacks that your business might face.
The 6 Most Common Phishing Attacks
Many individuals worldwide continue to fall for phishing attacks because cyberthreats are really improving at disguising these clever attacks. In fact, it was reported that over 90% of data breaches occur on account of phishing attacks. All attacks start the same: a cybercriminal attempts to get the end-user to share sensitive data or click on suspicious links. Once the victim clicks on or downloads the attachment, the cyberthreat can then install malicious software on your computer.
Here are some of the most common types of phishing scams that you and your employees should be on the lookout for:
- Spoofing: When criminals disguise themselves as a trusted source to gain a victim’s confidence to get access to sensitive information.
- Spear Phishing: A method that targets specific individuals or groups within an organization to get a victim to divulge important information.
- Whaling: Also known as CEO fraud, this type of attack impersonates a CEO and is designed to encourage an employee to perform a secondary act. These acts can include transferring money, buying gift cards and so forth.
- Vishing: A cybercrime that occurs when criminals trick people into giving confidential information through deceptive phone calls.
- Smishing: When criminals utilize SMS to send a compelling text to trick targeted recipients into clicking suspicious links.
- Malvertising: An attack in which perpetrators embed codes into online advertising that redirects victims to malicious websites.
To avoid falling for a phishing attack, look for signs that might seem off. Avoid giving sensitive information over the phone and be leery of requests that don’t seem right. When viewing emails—typically—a generic greeting that doesn’t use your name or a URL that doesn’t start with “http” can be a sign not to click. When in doubt, if it looks suspicious or seems off, don’t click.
What We Can Do to Help
Data breaches can be damaging enough, and who knows where your personal or client information could end up. Successfully defending your business against cyberattacks is something to think about when your business is at risk. As Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2022 is in full swing, help learn how to better prepare your staff to get the awareness you need.
When you’re looking for a partner to help fight against cyberattacks and bring more cybersecurity awareness and training to your staff — contact us. At Sentry IT, we are well-versed in innovative techniques that can help prepare for the unexpected.
If you want to learn more about cybersecurity awareness, check out additional blogs in our resources section.
6 Steps to Regain Control During a Cyberattack
When faced with a cyberattack, the worst thing you can do is panic because time is of the essence. Your top priority now is limiting the damage by securing your unaffected data. On your worst day, it helps to have a technology service provider who can help guide you through this tough tech situation. Here are six steps you and your TSP can follow during a cyberattack to minimize damage and speed your recovery time.
Don’t wait until it’s too late. Protect your business from cyberattacks.
Step 1: Assess the Situation
Before sounding the alarm, you need to know if this is simply an error or the real thing. Once you know for sure, notify whoever within your organization that can determine what type of attack you’re dealing with and how to stop it.
Step 2: Contain the Breach
After determining that this isn’t a glitch, your next step is to protect your unaffected network by containing the breach. First, figure out which servers are compromised, then contain the breach by doing the following:
- Disconnecting from the internet
- Changing passwords
- Disabling remote access
- Installing any pending security upgrades or patches
It may seem easier to erase everything from an infected server, but containing it will allow you and your tech team to figure out who broke into your network, how they were able to do it and what you can do to prevent it from happening again.
Step 3: Get Your Backups Ready
If you have backup servers and data ready, now is an excellent time to use them. However, before you turn them on, have your IT team check to find out if the backups were also affected by the attack. Backup servers can keep your networking running while you continue trying to stop the breach.
If you don’t have backup servers, simply turning your main servers off and on again won’t help. Keep your main ones on, so you and your team can analyze the breach and stop it without shutting down your entire network.
Step 4: Notify the Authorities
While it may be tempting to think of a cyberattack as an internal problem, it’s not in your best interest to keep this under wraps. Notify your local police department to inform them that you’ve been hit with a cyberattack. Also, keep in mind that you may need to contact more government agencies or industry organizations, depending on the type of data compromised or the notification processes within your field.
Step 5: Don’t Pay the Ransom
If the hackers are demanding a ransom in exchange for giving back your data, don’t do it. There is no guarantee the hacker will honor his end of the deal after you’ve sent the money. According to CSO from IDG, about 45 percent of organizations pay at least one ransom when hit by ransomware attacks. Paying the ransom will only encourage more hackers to do this kind of attack in the future.
Step 6: Notify Your Clients
This can be one of the most challenging steps following an attack, as many companies can be reluctant to share their bad news. However, you must let your customers who had their information compromised know what happened. That way, they can start to take action to prevent further damage.
How We Can Help
The best time to prevent a cyberattack is to have a complete security solution in place before a hacker attempts to break in. Don’t wait until it’s too late, have our team of cybersecurity experts run a security audit and create a solution that protects your business from the cybercriminals of tomorrow.
Secure Your Data
Find out how we can keep your network safe from threats. Contact Us Today.