Phishing attacks often use "social engineering" or manipulation tactics to play into their victim’s emotions and desire to trick them into doing an action that compromises their data and other sensitive information.
If the victim was a corporation, any compromised data would often lead to monetary and reputation losses. According to a recent report by IBM, phishing is the most expensive type of data breach, costing businesses an average $4.91 million.
There are many types of phishing tactics which attackers can employ, they are social engineering experts who know how to manipulate emotions and capitalize once any vulnerability is shown. But what red flags can you look for to guard yourself from such attacks?
Training your employees on these red flags for phishing attacks will help to assist in combatting and protecting your business. But how can you go one step further and secure the emails your organisation sends?
- Secure Email with S/MIME - the protocol which involves two cryptographic factors, digital signing and encryption to protect and verify your emails to both internal and external contacts.
- Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – more than one form of identification in order to access something and let the right people & devices in and keep the wrong ones out.
Editor's Note - this article was originally published in 2020 and was updated in 2022
