Avoiding phishing attacks can be tricky for businesses, no matter their industry or size. Phishing attacks are a type of social engineering where attackers send fraudulent messages to trick a victim into revealing sensitive information or deploying malicious software on the victim’s infrastructure.
Phishers target businesses that they regard to be profitable. This is because phishing attacks usually have ransoms attached to them that require the victims to pay thousands of pounds to be able to access their company data and regain control of their systems. Then, the cyber criminals can target their initial victim’s contact list and try and extort finances from suppliers and customers, which could cause the additional headache of long-term reputational damage.
Critically, the effects of phishing attacks can go unnoticed for some time before they are discovered. This means that the destructive path of a phishing attack can go on for large periods of time, affecting more organisations and people as it moves onwards.
Examples of Phishing Emails:
The Solution
This makes it even more important for businesses to go about avoiding phishing attacks as much as possible. The good news is that they can be stopped, with the help of multi-factor authentication.
MFA, as it is known, is one of the top preventative ways a company can proactively put up a barricade around its cyber systems. An extra layer of cyber security, MFA requires a user to input a code or password provided by a verified source, such as the user’s mobile phone number, to login to a service.
It proves to the service that the user is attempting to login to their own account, as opposed to an intruder trying to do so with stolen login credentials that could’ve been harvested during a phishing attack. In some cases, a failed login attempt could even alert the legitimate user to the presence of a cyber criminal trying to break into their systems, bringing the covert operations of a phishing actor to an end.
Without this, entire mailboxes and corporate networks can become compromised with ease.
The Next Step
So you’ve heard how damaging a phishing attack can be and the solution to an attack, so what next?
At Neuways, we recommend that businesses without mass adoption of multi-factor authentication change that as soon as possible. Without it, your business is essentially opening its doors to cyber criminals, who, with the right phishing attack, will be able to access not only all of your confidential information and data, but gain access to your customer and supplier contact list and potentially hurt those partners of your business too.
If you want to explore adding MFA to your business’ arsenal of cyber defences, please contact the cyber security experts at Neuways, by calling 01283 753333 or emailing hello@neuways.com
