In a fast-paced business environment where hundreds of emails are circulating every single day, it’s all too easy for a distracted employee to be duped into clicking a malicious URL or opening a malicious attachment.
Sometimes, that’s all it takes. A single moment of inattention can be enough to set off a chain of events that can lead to all sorts of security problems, like a data breach, a ransomware incident, or a hefty sum of money being wired to a fraudulent account.
That’s where anti phishing protection comes in. In this blog post, we’ll show you how anti-phishing security works and why organizations across every sector need to have the right tools and processes in place to protect themselves from phishing attacks.
What is anti phishing?
Before we explore anti phishing solutions, let’s take a moment to discuss what phishing actually is. So, what is phishing in cyber security?
Phishing is a type of social engineering attack in which cybercriminals masquerade as a legitimate organization via email and other forms of communication in order to trick the target into giving away sensitive information. It’s a shockingly widespread threat, with an estimated 3.4 billion phishing messages delivered annually.
Anti-phishing, then, refers to the technological and organizational security measures that are designed to block phishing attacks. These measures can help businesses reduce the risk of falling victim to phishing, accelerate response times and mitigate the impact of a successful attack.
Some examples of effective anti-phishing techniques include:
- Employee training: Your people are your first line of defense against phishing. Staff should be trained on anti phishing best practices and understand how to identify the telltale signs of phishing messages, such as spelling and grammatical errors, unusual requests, unexpected email attachments, and the use of urgent calls to action. Training should also cover verification processes (how will your team securely confirm the validity of atypical requests?), as well as escalation and incident response procedures.
- Email authentication: There are multiple email authentication protocols that can be used to verify the legitimacy of emails, detect spoofing and prevent threat actors from using your domain to send phishing emails. These protocols include Sender Policy Framework, DomainKeys Identified Mail, and Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance.
- Two-factor authentication: 2FA provides a simple and effective way to limit the impact of a successful phishing attack. In the event that an employee is tricked into giving away their login credentials, 2FA ensures the threat actor will not be able to access the compromised account without the second form of identification.
Why every business needs an anti phishing solution
Year after year, phishing consistently proves to be one of the most popular attack vectors. Deploying a reliable anti phishing solution can help improve your overall security posture and reduce the risk of your organization becoming a victim.
Below are some of the key advantages of investing in anti phishing security:
1. Prevent data loss
Just about every modern business is responsible for managing and storing large volumes of sensitive data, including personally identifiable information, financial details, proprietary business information, and more.
Cybercriminals often use phishing scams as a starting point to extract this valuable data, which is then sold on the black market, used as leverage in ransom negotiations, or used to commit fraud and other malicious activity.
Anti-phishing software helps prevent data loss by preventing users from accessing phishing websites and neutralizing malicious software that is used to steal data.
2. Reduce the risk of credential theft
Phishing emails frequently contain malicious URLs that direct recipients to seemingly legitimate websites where they’re asked to provide their login information to access the online service or account. When the user inputs this information, the data is sent directly to the threat actor, who can then use the stolen login credentials to access the user’s account and do anything within the hacked account’s privileges.
Even the most conscientious employee will make the occasional security slip-up. Automated phishing prevention tools offer an extra layer of security, blocking access to password-stealing websites and intercepting phishing attempts before they can be delivered. This ensures that even if one of your users falls for a phishing scam and clicks on a malicious link, the phishing website won’t load and they won’t even have the opportunity to input their login information.
3. Avoid malware infections
Phishing is commonly used to deliver malware, either via a malicious email attachment or by tricking the recipient into downloading the malware from a malicious website. Such incidents can be highly disruptive, costly to remediate and can do irreparable damage to a company’s reputation (see below!).
Anti-phishing solutions stop malware infections at the source by blocking access to websites that are known to distribute malicious software. Should one of your employees inadvertently click on a phishing link or a malicious email attachment, a good cybersecurity solution like Emsisoft Anti-Malware will step in and intercept the threat before it can harm your system.
4. Protect the company’s reputation
News travels quickly these days. Falling victim to a phishing attack can do real damage to an organization’s brand reputation and may prompt both existing and prospective clients to take their business elsewhere – particularly if the incident involves the theft and/or public exposure of sensitive customer data
Avoid bad publicity and maintain your reputation as a cyber-ready organization by leveraging a robust anti phishing tool. Anti-phishing solutions help harden your system against one of the most common attack vectors, thereby reducing the risk of network compromise and keeping your customers’ sensitive data safe.
5. Comply with regulatory requirements
In addition to preventing malware infection, data loss and reputational damage, anti-phishing software can also help organizations comply with regulatory requirements.
Many industries – including the healthcare, financial, and government sectors, among others – are subject to strict data privacy regulations, and businesses that fall victim to a phishing attack risk non-compliance.
Investing in reliable anti–phishing software can help you fulfill your data security responsibilities and avoid the associated regulatory penalties.
6. Reduce the risk of wire transfer phishing
Phishing can be used to commit wire transfer scams, in which cybercriminals impersonate a high-level employee or trusted supplier to trick an employee into transferring money to a fraudulent account. Establishing anti-phishing processes through both staff training and technological measures can help validate the authenticity of emails and reduce the risk of wire transfer scams
Conclusion
A successful phishing attack can lead to all sorts of adverse outcomes for businesses, including data loss, malware infection, severe reputational damage and more. Anti-phishing solutions help protect your business by taking the human factor out of the equation and intercepting phishing threats before your employees have the chance to click on them.
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