Tips to Improve Your Organizational Phishing Deterrence

Phishing is one of the most prevalent issues individuals and businesses must confront when operating online. This is because there are literally billions of these scam attempts sent each day. That’s right, billions. With over a hundred billion scam attempts sent every year, your business is already getting phished, it’s just a matter of time before someone falls for it.

Cybersecurity has changed quite a bit over the past decade. There was a time when you could do a solid job securing your network and infrastructure by deploying tools close to your data, but today, many hacking strategies revolve around gaining access to authorized user accounts and then deploying malware or scraping data from there. That strategy is meant to take advantage of the weakest link in your network security: your employees. 

Unfortunately, by targeting your workers, scammers pull them into the fray, where many of them don’t want to be. Let’s review a few of the variables that need to be considered regarding phishing training from beginning to end.

#1 – Assessment of Current Knowledge – You must start by assessing your employees’ knowledge of phishing attacks. This can be done in a multitude of ways, but brief surveys or conversations about it should be enough to get a good idea of what they know and what they don’t know.

#2 – Work to Understand Phishing Tactics – You need to educate your staff about the different types of phishing and avenues of attack,  including email, phone, and text scams. Explain how attackers use social engineering techniques to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information or downloading malware.

#3 – Provide Interactive Training – The best training method is hands-on, but you can’t wait for your employees to fall for phishing scams to let them learn their lesson. Develop interactive training that simulates real-world phishing scenarios. They should cover topics such as spotting suspicious emails, verifying the legitimacy of links and attachments, and recognizing common red flags.

#4 – Phishing Simulation – Conduct regular phishing simulation exercises to test employees’ awareness and response to phishing attempts. These simulations can help identify areas for improvement and reinforce training concepts.

#5 – Feedback and Analysis – Provide employee feedback based on their performance in phishing simulations. Analyze the results to identify trends and areas for additional training.

#6 – Encourage Reporting – Create a culture where employees feel comfortable reporting suspicious emails or activities. Provide clear instructions on reporting phishing attempts and ensure that incidents are promptly investigated and addressed.

#7 – Continuous Education – Phishing tactics constantly evolve, so providing ongoing education and updates to employees is important. This can include regular training sessions, newsletters, and alerts about emerging threats.

Getting phished can bring big problems to your business. By implementing a comprehensive training policy, you can do your best to keep phishing from affecting your organization. If you would like to learn how the expert IT professionals at White Mountain IT Services can help you build a training strategy that can help keep your business’ IT infrastructure secure, call us today at (603) 889-0800 to have a conversation.