Don’t let phishing attempts compromise your network!
Hackers deal in information. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or a local small business if you have any kind of private information on your network your business is a target. Phishing is one of the most common methods that hackers use in an attempt to gain access to your data. The first step to protecting your network from phishing is to educate yourself and your employees on how to spot phishing attempts.
Healthy Skepticism
You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but a healthy level of skepticism and caution should be applied when reading emails. If your email urges immediate action of any kind, it is wise to investigate its source. If it says “Act Now”, or there’s a threat of fines for inaction, there’s a pretty good chance it’s phishing.
Be Careful What You Click On
If an email looks “fishy” in any way, it should be flagged as suspicious, and investigated by your IT team. In most email programs, you can hover your cursor over hyperlinks and view the URL that they lead to. If you hover over a link and the URL appears to be suspicious in any way, don’t click on it.
Signatures
If an email address says “person@company.com”, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is actually from that company, or that the person actually exists at all. So, if someone’s email said that they were john_doe@globalhn.com, and “Mr. Doe” was urging the recipient to act immediately or risk repercussions, there’s a strong chance that it’s a phishing email.
Surf Carefully
Along with phishing emails, hackers also target unsecured websites. If the URL of a site you’re visiting starts with “https://” and displays a padlock icon informing you that you have a secure connection to the server, you’re good to go. We’re all used to the HTTP beginning to URLs. The addition of the “S” on the URL means that the website has what’s known as an SSL. This more or less means that the site has been certified to be secure and not fraudulent.
IT Solutions and Network Protection from Global Harvest Networks
Global Harvest Networks has been working for the Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia areas since 2000 and we’re ready to lend our expertise to you! We offer a wide range of IT solutions that can tackle any and all of your network’s needs. Please don’t hesitate to contact us so that we can help you! You can also give us a call at 443-270-0401. We’re ready to assess your system, diagnose the problem, and help you find a plan that will strengthen your network, all free of charge! For more information on the latest things you should protect your system from, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube.