How to Keep Your Business Safe from Phishing Attacks

Cybersecurity has to be a critical concern for all businesses. We often hear from small businesses that say “Surely that doesn’t concern me”, but they are wrong!

Phishing, which is a deceptive technique to obtain sensitive information and this has to be considered a significant threat. If you or an employee fall prey to this scam it can result in considerable financial losses, data breaches and can lead to the destruction of your business. Let’s go over a few strategies to help protect your business from phishing attacks.

Now I usually like to write our articles with headings in alphabetical order, but this is very important. Educating your team is necessary and the most important aspect, quite often the staff in a business can be the weakest link. Even if staff are fairly educated on Cyber Security, a lapse in concentration and clicking on the wrong link can make or break a company.

Educating staff about what to look out for, the use of inappropriate links and generally allowing them to detect malicious emails and messages. Doing this can empower your staff to feel they have the knowledge to report phishing emails and avoid clicking the wrong links or taking action that can lead to data leaks.

All critical data should be regularly backed up, the data should be stored securely and tested frequently. Ideally the data should be stored off-site and make use of a Cloud Backup Solution. As mentioned the data should be tested to ensure the integrity is correct and a quick restore can take place, in the event of a data breach you need to ensure that your business can be back up and running as quick as possible.

MFA is a must if your accounts support it. MFA will prevent unathorised access because if your password is compromised then it should prompt the user for a six-digit code to allow access to your account. MFA requires that you approve access and retrieve a code via your Password Manager or an Authenticator app on your phone.

However, Hamilton Group Ltd does not recommend using a mobile service for SMS 2FA as it can be taken over via sim swapping and that can result in the loss of your phone service and a compromised account.

If you have an IT Service Provider then this part should be done for you, but your business needs to ensure all cybersecurity software is kept up-to-date. Cyber threats change rapibly and if you don’t stay up-to-date, you can miss critical updates. When we state this it isn’t just security software but all your software needs to be kept up to date with the latest patches and security updates.

If you need IT Support, consider Hamilton Group, call us on 01423 438953 for a chat.

You should regularly test your business to see how their cybersecurity posture is and help identify any vulnerabilities, this lets you identify areas for improvement.

Phishing Simulations, allows you to test employee awareness and to make sure your cybersecurity training is effective.

If you would like to have a chat about your cyber security or are concerned by anything in this article, speak to our experts today!

Call us on 01423 438953 or book an appointment from our live Calendar in the bottom right.