Phishing Awareness – A Key Defensive Method

The technologically enabled business world networked through the Internet and corporate networks has made the world connected and smaller. While these benefits every customer, business hours, vendors and end-users tremendously by making everything from business critical data, products and services available at the click of a mouse, it also challenges the enterprises with security threats. These threats from the cyber criminals tend to harm not just the individual systems but the network of IT infrastructure and the corporate landscape are also at risk.

The wide use of the internet has paved way for Phishing attacks to be used as a popular tool by the cyber criminals. Being one of the fastest growing forms of Internet attacks, these can cause havoc for the enterprises and the end-users. The enterprises thus need to take proactive steps towards protecting the brand, assets and intellectual property. The use of anti- phishing tools and creating strong phishing awareness among the users will go a long way in phishing protection.

The anti-Phishing software from the leading developers proactively locates the threats to the organization irrespective of being hidden or public, targeted Phishing attacks or malware.  Phishing attacks by criminals’ tricks the customer into voluntarily providing personal details or critical information that can be subsequently used by them for identity theft, access account or leak out vital business information. Besides the use of anti-phishing tools, a key defensive mechanism that can be used by the enterprise to gain protection from phishing is to ensure that the employees and the distantly distributed teams and mobile workforce have enough phishing awareness.

Though the anti-phishing solutions designed and developed by leading service providers in the help enterprises to protect the vulnerable people and process against any phishing attacks, the security awareness programs adds on to the benefits by being the best line of defense against the cyber criminals. Such educative measures will help the employees and customers to recognize the Phishing attacks when they occur and be on guard for these attacks by protecting all vital information without disclosing it.

With Phishing scams becoming more and more sophisticated, the use of anti-Phishing software helps save costs and prevents losses in business. Enterprises thus need to invest in advanced anti-phishing solutions which can combat the threats, provide statistics on user behavior, measure the level of phishing  awareness among employees, identifies data leakage and scale up to provide phishing protections as per the organizational requirement.

Read More About: Simulated Phishing Attack

Why Companies Should Invest In Phishing Protection Solution

Whilst checking your mails, browsing the internet or drafting official mails you must have encountered websites that ask you to share your personal details. As you offer all your private data, the web page or URL takes you to cryptic links and websites that are fraudulent. This apart, there are other mails that declare that you have won a lottery and a grand prize money that also come from unauthentic source. It is essential to say away from such online activities as they are Phishing attacks to steal your vital information.

Today Phishing attacks concentrate on employers who are naïve and would easily give into these tricky mails and online activities without a second’s thought. Thorough Phishing attacks cyber criminals and third party hackers aim to rob an individual or a company of the private and confidential data that might lead to severe consequences.

The generic Phishing awareness programs and other software are only providing a limited security against malicious Phishing attacks. However, today service providers have gone beyond these limitations and have addressed these risks encountered by individuals and employees. These kind of programs helps in securing an employee and an enterprise against Phishing mails by establishing a prioritized action to lessen the potential threats. To explain in simple terms Phishing is an outcome of social engineering and is a criminal strategy that implements technical deception to rob your financial, personal data and other identity details. Such kind of hoax mails result in counterfeit websites that sometimes corrupt the computing device as well.

Innovative Anti-Phishing Solutions

Modern day anti-Phishing solutions provided by the service providers have statistics on the user behavior that assesses the security awareness amidst the employees and identifies the possible data leakage and estimated Data Loss Prevention. They also evaluate the incident response programs. After this there is a customized test in the form of a simulated Phishing attack to track the user responses and their aptitude to the Phishing emails. This apart, there is an e-learning module that is useful in educating the employees about the safety awareness.

Few other advantages include the following:

• Helps enterprises in estimating the probable threats associated with phishing
• Offers flexible reporting capacities and incorporate them back into the enterprises’ main performance-indicator framework
• Offers a “road map" solution highlighting on phishing awareness and training within the organization
• Recognizes weakness within people, process and technology links
• Helps in prioritizing remediation attempts via effective benchmarking and maturity evaluation
• Maximizes employee awareness and knowledge to help guard sensitive information

Therefore innovative Phishing protection can efficiently diagnose risks for certain segments and the overall business.

Respond To Phishing Attacks With Anti-Phishing Tool

When you are browsing through the internet or checking your mail, it is very common to come across unknown pop-ups and strange URL links, which lead you to fraudulent web pages. There have been numerous instances of individuals and employees of well-known brands clicking on these pop-ups and URL links and losing their vital corporate and personal data. This is popularly known as Phishing and is a vicious byproduct of social engineering, that aims to rob you off your private data and even corrupt your computing device.

The majority of the Phishing attacks today are designed and aimed by the third party intruders for the naïve individuals who are unaware of Phishing. In order to combat this situation there has been various anti-Phishing and employee awareness programs but all of it provided a restricted perspective on security and Phishing attacks. Top notch market players today have been utilizing new-age  technology coupled with employee research and have come up with a revolutionary anti-Phishing software that safeguards the individuals/employees from Phishing attacks and creates a prioritized action plan that helps to minimize the occurrence of potential hazards.

As social engineering is increasing its adverse effects, Phishing awareness too is a critical concern today. These attacks lead to monetary loss as well as brand erosion. There are times when the losses take excess time retrieve and by that time the brand suffers a negative brand image and fighting back to gain its original position becomes complex and challenging. The private data that are robbed and leaked by third party hackers through Phishing include email id passwords, credit/debit card details. Visa details and other data such as business plans and business forecasts.

The standard Phishing security programs that are available in the market can only address the process and technology used in Phishing protection. Few other solutions also focused on the “person's risk” factor. A latest trend has been the “incident” oriented approach that entails in making the employees and individual empowered by the knowledge about phishing attacks. Other benefits of anti-Phishing tools include the following:

• It enables organizations in evaluating the probable risks associated with phishing
• The software has flexible reporting capabilities and can incorporate them back into the organization’s main performance-indicator framework.
• The solution provides a detailed “road map" solution that emphasizes on the security awareness and training within an organization.
• It enables in recognizing the weakness within people, process and technology links.
• It facilitates prioritizing remediation attempts through effective benchmarking and maturity assists in maximizing the employee awareness and knowledge to help guard sensitive information.
  

Thus, we see that new-age  solution providers of anti-Phishing software/solutions enable the organizations to evaluate their employees’ aptitude towards Phishing attacks. The solution hence not only concentrates on computing equipments but also about transforming people’s point of view about Phishing and overall IT/software security.

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Increase Employee Phishing Awareness with Anti-Phishing Software

Though enterprises deploy state of the art network security systems to protect against threats, it serves no real purpose when it comes to social engineering. This is because a social engineering attack could bypass all defenses. Hence, social engineering is the greatest concern of the enterprises. Moreover, the social engineering attacks are so refined that it is hard to identify and avoid. One of the most popular social engineering techniques is phishing, which makes use of fraudulent means to obtain personal and corporate data.

According to a recent survey, almost half of enterprises have fallen victim to social engineering practices leading to security breaches and data loss. As per this survey, the primary motivation behind phishing attacks is financial gain followed by competitive advantage and revenge. What makes social engineering dangerous is the fact that it attacks the most valuable and the most vulnerable link in an organization and that is employees. Social engineers take advantage of human behavior and trick them into breaking normal security procedures.

Though there are many products and services that effectively address the "process and technology" aspect of security, only few solutions are available that adequately address 'people risk'. Since social engineering and phishing rely heavily on human interaction and appeal to the vanity, authority, and greed of the people, what enterprises need is an effective anti phishing tool. This helps to build the first line of defense by increasing an employee's awareness of phishing.

The anti phishing software assists organizations in evaluating the readiness of employees against phishing and social engineering attacks. By installing this software tailored with information about people, processes and technology within the organization, the enterprise can simulate either a simple phishing attack or a more targeted spear phishing attack. The tool then analyzes the social behaviors towards the attack and generates a detailed report. Based on the findings enterprises can design remedial measures to alleviate phishing risks, educate people and modify processes. This will help to reduce possible threats due to such attacks in the future.

A best of breed anti phishing tool provides statistics on user behavior, measures security awareness among employees, identifies data leakage, assesses Data Loss Prevention (DLP) programs, and tests the incident response program. Thus with such a tool a ‘teaching moment’ can be generated that provides a safe, customized learning experience for users – resulting in increased employee phishing awareness and knowledge that helps protect the sensitive information entrusted to them.

Read More About: Simulated phishing attack

Phishing Awareness & Protection – An Absolute Imperative

The growth in technology has given rise to a good number of cyber crimes and security breaches with Phishing attacks being the most worrisome of the lot. Having the potential to damage your company’s image and reputation, Phishing attacks are especially insidious as it endeavors to manipulate its victims into giving up confidential data by pretending to be  someone who the victim would  disclose information to. Phishing protection has become an essential component of any company’s security initiatives.

Adequate Phishing protection includes being aware of the ways in which a Phishing attack can be launched. The most powerful weapon against Phishing is common sense and the following rules that every user should oblige to. Like other such components, Phishing protection not only safeguards the company’s assets, but it also protects the employees themselves. Educating  employees on how Phishing works and what it looks like, as well as what to be observant of, can go a long way to providing an effective last line of defense against Phishing attempts.

Investing in an anti Phishing software ensures that employees follow the best practices for protection against Phishing and increase awareness. The software facilitates calculation of Phishing risks and demonstrates high flexibility with timely reporting services.  An effective anti-Phishing tool carries out mock attacks on the employees and also educates them on how to deal with these attacks. These tools also conduct simulated Phishing attack to test the responsiveness and the reactions of your employees.

Protecting an organization from the damage incurred by Phishing and malware scams requires advanced anti Phishing tool It is hence crucial for an organization to have a successful risk management and control mechanism against social engineering attacks to be dynamic and keep up with evolving security risks. With Phishing attacks wreaking havoc, enterprises need to take a proactive approach and engage in external threat monitoring against your brand, assets, and intellectual property. With a good anti-Phishing solution employees are armed to counter any attacks. These anti-Phishing solutions proactively seek out threats against an organization that can be discovered across the public and hidden internet, such as targeted Phishing or malware attacks, so that they can be taken down before they succeed.

Look for a solution that ensures eliminate all kinds of sophisticated Phishing attacks.   One of the most important things you can do to avoid Phishing attacks is keep your antivirus software up-to-date because most antivirus vendors have signatures that protect against some common technology exploits.

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Stay Safe From Phishing Attacks

With the increased amount of Phishing attacks it has become essential to understand what exactly a phishing email is. Any internet user can come across a phishing mail that at the first glance might seem to be an authentic mail. Phishing emails come from unauthentic sources and claim to from banking, financial, online auction and lottery websites. They send users compelling content that in terms of huge prize money, international products and discounted price and aim to rob an individual of his or her personal data.

The mode of inquiry is very thrifty and often the users are not able to grasp dangerous phishing attacks targeted at them. Though you might hear less about Phishing mails as compared to virus, spyware or malware attacks, they all are equally hazardous.

The Way Phishing Attacks Operate?

The most common way in which hackers and third party intruders make a phishing attacks work is through the mails. There are situations when they take the names of reputed brands. For example, the MSN or Yahoo lottery mails that people receive as mobile messages or mails, with huge amounts as winning prize money are all phishing mails. These mails ask you give away your email passwords and bank details and end up hacking your email, accounts and even corrupting your computer system.

Hence, phishing mails generally operate on human emotions and play on individual unpreparedness and vulnerability. Today phishers have devised sophisticated attacks that are difficult to decide. Most of the time these mails will have no contact details. Hence protection from phishing is a necessity today. This is especially applicable for eminent brands that have employees unaware of such attacks.

Advanced Anti-Phishing Solutions

Today leading solution providers have introduced anti-phishing software that assists organizations to evaluate whether their employees have the required knowledge of social engineering and its side effects. The software helps in the following ways:-

• Helps enterprises in estimating the probable hazards associated with phishing
• Offers elastic reporting and incorporate them back into the company’s chief performance-indicator framework
• Offers a “road map" solution concentrating on security awareness and training within an enterprise
• Helps to recognize weakness within people, method and technology links
• Helps in prioritizing remediation attempts through useful benchmarking and maturity analysis
• Helps in increasing employee awareness and expertise to safeguard crucial information

Only investing in antivirus or antispyware protection is not sufficient today. In order to stay secured from hazardous phishing attacks anti-phishing solutions offered by eminent service providers are useful.