You might be familiar with the term Phishing in which the target is tricked in giving up all the information which can be later used in scamming the victim. The most common ways of phishing are via emails, calls or text messages. For example, recently, the Ukranian Energy company claimed that according to some sources, Russian attackers hacked into them looking for some sensitive data. However, as technology has grown so is the security pattern and more and more people are getting aware of such phishing attacks.
Phishing attacks are randomly targeted to a larger audience by the attacker posing as a trusted third-party while the victim gives out all the information. In fact, in today’s world, personal data is probably the most important piece of data which if comes in the wrong hand can cause huge damage. But in this post, we will give you 5 tips that will help you to avoid Spear Phishing attacks. So, without any further ado, let us get straight into the article itself:
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5 Tips to Avoid Spear Phishing Attacks
Here are the 5 tips that you can make use of to avoid being a victim of the phishing attacks. In this way, all your information can be saved and you can also pass on these tips to other people to help safeguard them as well.
Look out for fake emails
The most common way an attacker can try to phish you is via email. Posting mails as a trusted source is not a big deal in today’s technological world. You can take some measure to avoid being a victim:
- Do not trust display names on the emails.
- Make sure to check for fake email domain names.
- If there is a logo, check for its authenticity.
- Review links carefully.
- One of the mistakes that this kind of phishing emails commit is that there will be some type of spelling or grammatical mistake.
Avoid clicking links and attachments
- If there is an attachment linked to the mail, do not straightaway open or download the file.
- Do not click the link even if it seems legit without further investigation from your end.
- Make sure to look for the source of the mail.
Check for the Phishing sites
- Firstly, check the URL.
- Check for SSL/TLS Certificate
- Check for proper spelling and grammar.
- Search for such emails claiming to benefit you directly on other sources.
- Check for the copyright our any about terms.
Use strong passwords
The best way to safeguard all your information is to have a set of strong passwords across all your email or other accounts. In fact, you should have different strong passwords for all of your accounts. If you feel that you cannot remember all the different passwords or could not think of new passwords then, you can make use of Password Managers. It not only helps to keep all your passwords safe but can give you a combination of strong passwords and also alert you about the phishing websites by default.
Verify Suspicious requests
If the mail or message is asking you for your personal information, do not hesitate to call the number provided or check the authenticity of the mail. As already mentioned that phishing scams are done to a larger audience, chances are there would be some information about such phishing emails over the internet posted by some informed user. If the mail includes the number of the company, do not feel awkward to call them and ask for the verification of the email.
So, there you have it from my side in this post. I hope you guys liked this post and were able to gain some knowledge about the spear-phishing attacks and also the tips to avoid them. The most basic thing to do is to avoid heading to malicious websites and also not responding to mail or messages that you cannot verify. Until the next post…Cheers!