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Don’t open that email attachment! Take the Quiz!

Unfortunately most people cannot tell the difference between a real email attachment and a phishing email attachment and it is going to affect your business productivity and profitability.

Recently Intel Security released results from a survey and found that an alarming 80 percent of people cannot see the difference between a phishing email and a legitimate email. In the test, survey users were sent 10 emails from McAfee Labs. Some of the test emails were fine and others were phishing emails.  In the study. 19,458 people took part in the test and 80 percent failed.  Unfortunately, only 3 percent passed the phishing email test.

How do you protect yourself against phishing?

  1. Be wary of emails asking for confidential information as legitimate organizations will never request sensitive information via email.
  2. Don’t get pressured or intimidated by scare tactics to provide sensitive information. Cyber criminals like to use scare tactics and even threaten to disable your account until you update certain information.
  3. Make sure you are familiar with a website’s privacy policy which is usually accessible at the foot of the page. The most useful thing to look for is the website’s policy on whether it will or will not sell its mailing list.
  4. Most of the spam you receive on a daily basis is already dangerous phishing emails. Most times it is coming to you because you have signed up to a website and they sold you information. You may want reconsider whether you want to sign up to the site.
  5. Watch out for generic-looking requests for information as fraudulent emails are often not personalized. Many phishing emails begin with “Dear Sir/Madam”, and some come from a bank with which you never heard of.
  6. Never submit confidential information via forms embedded within email messages.
  7. Never use links in an email to connect to a website. Open a browser window and type the URL directly into the address bar. A phishing website will look identical to the original.
  8. Make sure you maintain effective software to combat phishing like an internet security suite that will automatically detect and block fake websites.

 

Put your phishing knowledge to the test. Try the online quiz to test your phishing detection skills.

 

Is your company safe and protected from phishing email attacks?

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