Wait, Nealey don't click on that link.
We are here to share how to protect your business
from phishing scams.
Believe it or not,
88% of businesses around the world experienced
a phishing scam last year.
But, there's a difference between an attempt
and a successful attack.
65% of organizations in the United States experienced
a successful phishing attack.
And at 19.8% of employees clicked on phishing email links
and it's the most common way to cause a breach.
So what exactly are phishing scams?
Well, it's an attempt by an outside organization
to get in and steal your personal information
for financial gain.
And this was pretty severe.
I mean, it's cost just in US alone in one year,
roughly half a billion dollars.
The overall term for these scams phishing
with a PH.
Is a modified version of fishing with an F.
Except in this instance the only one doing the fishing
are the crooks.
And they're really trying to catch you
and reel you in with their sneaky email lure.
So being able to avoid their bait
is a very important skill for all internet users.
And if you're running any aspect of your business online.
If you get caught, it'll cost you
Now lets talk about what type of phishing attacks
there are.
And now the methods that these scam artists
are using are constantly becoming more sophisticated
which is why it becomes so dangerous.
Now while email
is still the large focus for our attackers.
It's important to note that with the rise of mobile
social media it's happening there too.
And hey, some attacks are easy to spot.
A Twitter bot sends you a private message
containing a shortened URL that leads to something.
Some type of bad malware.
Or maybe even like a fake request
asking for your payment details.
But it can be a little bit more complex as well.
And then there's SMS phishing.
And my probably my new favorite term smishing.
The attack works in kind of the same way
that an email does.
Presenting the victim with a fraudulent offer
or a fake warning as an incentive to click through
the malicious URL that's usually hidden in the form
of something familiar.
So you might be wondering how can I spot
a phishing attack.
Or at least I hope you're wondering that.
Since it is such a common problem,
there's actually plenty of resources online to help you.
There's even a popular phishing attack
that was so bad that PayPal even addressed it
on its own website
and showed off popular ways of figuring out
whether the email is a phishing email
or a legitimate one coming from PayPal themselves.
So here are some things to watch out for.
No email is going to be sent from a public domain.
So for example, if you see an email come
through from a business@gmail.com,
you should be suspicious.
So if the domain name the part after the at symbol
matches the business name,
it's probably legit.
But you could also go ahead and pop that domain name
into a search engine to do a double check.
Now, this makes detecting phishing seem,
I don't know, easy?
But trust me the attackers have a lot of tricks
up their sleeve.
Another clear way to see if an email
or some other variation is a phishing attempt.
Is to check to see if the domain name is misspelled.
Like if something was being sent from Google
and it has a couple extra Os
or a three for the E.
It's probably not coming from Google.
And the problem that anyone can buy a domain name
makes this a little bit unique.
So, again going back to Emma's point
of checking on the search engines
to see what that company's domain actually is.
Is a sure-fire way to see if the email
that you're getting sent is legitimate
or if it's just another one trying to bait you
in with their lure.
Also keep an eye out if the message is poorly written.
Look for spelling errors,
grammatical errors.
Often times the emails are coming from non-English
speaking countries
where they just don't have the ability
to learn the language.
So with this in mind, it becomes easier to spot a typo.
That's coming from a legitimate center verse an attacker.
And it's your responsibility to look at the context
of that message to determine if is in fact someone phishing.
A lot of phishing emails or attacks will include some type
of suspicious attachment or links.
No matter how the phishing scams are attempted,
they'll all contain a payload.
Either an infected attachment asking you to download
to your computer where it can run a muck
or a link to a bogus website.
The purpose of these payloads is to capture
sensitive information such as your login credentials,
credit card details, phone numbers and account numbers.
Anything that they can get their hands on to then get access
to other sensitive information,
like a bank account.
So to ensure that you don't fall for this.
You're going to need to train yourself
to really look at the links.
And there are some tricks you could go ahead
and hover over the link if you're on your computer
and the actual address will pop up.
So you can see.
Okay, where's this gonna go?
And on a mobile device you can actually hover over the link
and push down and it'll pop up and you can see there
as well to then determine is this legitimate or not.
Exactly.
And a great sure-fire way to kind of spot to see
whether the phishing attempt is a valid
or if it's legitimate email.
Is to see if the message creates a sense of urgency.
Scammers know that most of us procrastinate.
We received an email giving us important news
and we just decided to just deal with it later,
read it later.
Just mark is read and never remember it, like me.
But the longer you think about something
the more likely you are to notice
that things don't seem right.
And that's why so many of these scam requests
have that urgency.
And is to get you to act now.
So, if you see something like, Hey,
your password is expired.
You must log in with the next three hours to reset it.
Or your Microsoft key is invalid.
You have until 3:00 AM to activate it.
Whatever it might be.
Those are sure-fire ways to see
that this is actual a phishing attempt
because most of the time the emails that we receive
aren't that time sensitive.
So, just being suspicious,
being alert is a huge step forward to protecting yourself
from potentially being phished.
Now Emma, what should you do
if you receive this phishing email?
Great question Nealey.
Report it.
Absolutely report it.
And the good news is most email clients give you
a really simple way to flag or report a suspicious email.
Well Emma, what happens if you accidentally clicked
on the link of the email?
All right well, Nealey.
Oops, you clicked on the link.
They would say go ahead and absolutely reset the password
to anything that was compromised.
And, strongly encouraged
that you have a two factor authentication.
Where you're sent a one-time code.
It's just this added layer of protection,
highly recommended.
You can really never be too cautious when it comes
to phishing scams.
And because these are born out of vulnerabilities.
If one hacker finds a situation that can be exploited,
they are going to do so.
And it's easy to get complacent with cybersecurity.
But the stakes are too high to get complacent.
So, SMB's need to be attentive to protect their assets
and their reputation.
These tips are sure-fire ways to see
if it is a legitimate request
or if it's just a phishing attempt.
And if you've learned anything in this video
or just had fun watching.
Make sure you give us a like and drop a comment below.
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Thanks for tuning in this is The Journey!