Millions of scams, cyberattacks, and phishing attempts take place every year.
Companies lose data as well as money due to these malpractices.
Most of the time, it is a simple loophole in the security system that leads to data disasters.
Phishing emails are one of them that contribute to many successful scam attempts on the web.
An employee may open a mail that may contain a virus.
However, you can prevent such incidences by providing cybersecurity training to employees.
Make them aware and cautious by sharing features of a phishing email with them, and installing reliable antiviruses on their devices.
A reliable ISP like Charter Spectrum can also help employees stay safe on the web with the help of encrypted communication.
Read about how you can train your employees to avoid phishing emails.
— Provide Cybersecurity Training to All Employees
Your employees are your primary defense against cyberattacks and phishing emails.
Train them to prevent such incidents.
You can ask your information security team to conduct a training program for all employees.
Supplement them with refresher courses to update their cybersecurity knowledge.
Make sure to keep these programs fun and interactive.
Employees must feel engaged throughout the course.
Guide them regarding the best practices and the reporting procedure of anything suspicious.
Once the training is complete, make sure to conduct tests.
See if your employees can identify phishing emails or not.
You must make it mandatory for underperforming employees to take the test again.
Make sure to reward high-scoring individuals.
This will serve as a motivation for others.
— Share Features of a Phishing Email
Perhaps, the best way to educate your employees is to teach them the salient features of a phishing email.
Give them the know-how to identify it from a normal one.
— Spelling and Grammar Mistakes
Rest assured that most cybercriminals do not have good writing skills.
They also do not have access to quality writers to compose their emails most of the time.
Therefore, you will find phishing emails to contain many spelling errors.
Frequent grammar errors may also be present.
Unnecessary text spacing is also one of the key characteristics.
Refrain from opening any URLs or clicking any logos, etc. if you notice such problems in an email.
— No Mention of Your Name
Emails from reliable sources will always address you by name.
If the email does not mention your name or your designation, it’s probably a phishing email.
Hackers do not have the time to personalize the text body.
They will simply compose an email and send it to as many people as they can.
— Bogus Domain Names
The sender address of most of the phishing emails will not contain a domain name.
If you receive such an email, avoid clicking on any links or visual elements.
A representative from Linkedin will always send you an email with a reliable domain name.
After the “@” symbol, Linkedin will be written next to it.
However, an illegitimate email sender may have a bogus domain name such as @linkedin149.
Your employees must be able to notice this futile attempt.
— Unnecessary Attachments
Note that legitimate companies will never send attachments to you unnecessarily.
If you receive an email with an attachment, do not open or download it.
Similarly, avoid responding to any email that asks you to share your personal information such as credit card details or social security number.
Your bank or eCommerce store will never ask for such details over email.
— Show Real Examples of Data Breaches
You must show employees how phishing emails can impact businesses.
To do this, share real-life examples of successful scams.
Data such as the number of attacks, monetary losses, employee downsizing, and reputation damages will make them realize the gravity of the situation.
When your employees will see such data with their own eyes, they will understand the necessity to be careful when opening emails.
— Install Reliable Antiviruses on Devices
Human error is unavoidable and even after meticulous training, an employee may fall prey to a phishing scam.
However, a good antivirus installed on company devices can prove to be quite useful.
Do remember that antiviruses are software programs and, therefore, require regular updates.
Your IT department will need to take care of providing them on time.
Otherwise, hackers can develop advanced techniques to override them.
Antiviruses must be present on all company devices.
Make sure that employees using the company’s Wi-Fi network on their personal devices also take necessary security measures.
— Involve Executives in Security Programs
Even though the higher management in an organization may take security initiatives, they may end up proving to be the biggest liability.
One of the reasons is that they do not partake in the security training themselves.
This may create a gap in the overall security infrastructure of the company.
The assumption that security training is only for junior and mid-level resources is wrong, to begin with.
Note that C-level and senior management officials in your company will have access to the most sensitive data.
A small act of negligence, therefore, can result in huge data and monetary losses for the company.
Therefore, it is even more important for them to have cybersecurity awareness compared to other resources.
Hackers proactively attempt to target senior resources.
Such an attempt is known as a whaling attack.
These are some of the ways you can train your employees to avoid phishing emails.
With a few security practices in place, you can ensure that your company data and employees remain safe on the web.