Phishing attacks are still out there, unscrupulous people attempting to get your data and steal your money.
What can you do?
Microsoft have put together the below information.
Phishing attacks attempt to steal sensitive information through emails, websites, text messages, or other forms of electronic communication. They try to look like official communication from legitimate companies or individuals.
Cybercriminals often attempt to steal usernames, passwords, credit card details, bank account information, or other credentials. They use stolen information for malicious purposes, such as hacking, identity theft, or stealing money directly from bank accounts and credit cards. The information can also be sold in cybercriminal underground markets.
Social engineering attacks are designed to take advantage of a user’s possible lapse in decision-making. Be aware and never provide sensitive or personal information through email or unknown websites, or over the phone. Remember, phishing emails are designed to appear legitimate
Learn the signs of a phishing scam
The best protection is awareness and education. Don’t open attachments or links in unsolicited emails, even if the emails came from a recognized source. If the email is unexpected, be wary about opening the attachment and verify the URL.
Enterprises should educate and train their employees to be wary of any communication that requests personal or financial information. They should also instruct employees to report the threat to the company’s security operations team immediately.
Here are several tell-tale signs of a phishing scam:
- The links or URLs provided in emails are not pointing to the correct location or are pointing to a third-party site not affiliated with the sender of the email. For example, in the image the URL provided doesn’t match the URL that you’ll be taken to.
- There’s a request for personal information such as social security numbers or bank or financial information. Official communications won’t generally request personal information from you in the form of an email.
- Items in the email address will be changed so that it is similar enough to a legitimate email address, but has added numbers or changed letters.
- The message is unexpected and unsolicited. If you suddenly receive an email from an entity or a person you rarely deal with, consider this email suspect.
- The message or the attachment asks you to enable macros, adjust security settings, or install applications. Normal emails won’t ask you to do this.
- The message contains errors. Legitimate corporate messages are less likely to have typographic or grammatical errors or contain wrong information.
- The sender address doesn’t match the signature on the message itself. For example, an email is purported to be from Mary of Contoso Corp, but the sender address is john@example.com.
- There are multiple recipients in the “To” field and they appear to be random addresses. Corporate messages are normally sent directly to individual recipients.
- The greeting on the message itself doesn’t personally address you. Apart from messages that mistakenly address a different person, greetings that misuse your name or pull your name directly from your email address tend to be malicious.
- The website looks familiar but there are inconsistencies or things that aren’t quite right. Warning signs include outdated logos, typos, or ask users to give additional information that is not asked by legitimate sign-in websites.
- The page that opens is not a live page, but rather an image that is designed to look like the site you are familiar with. A pop-up may appear that requests credentials.
If in doubt, contact the business by known channels to verify if any suspicious emails are in fact legitimate.
What to do if you’ve been a victim of a phishing scam
If you feel you’ve been a victim of a phishing attack:
- Contact your IT admin if you are on a work computer
- Immediately change all passwords associated with the accounts
- Report any fraudulent activity to your bank and credit card company
Do not hesitate to contact Midland Computers if you need further advice.