Phishing is the most common way attackers get into a business. Most of these emails can be spotted with a quick check. Train yourself to look for these signs:
The four tell-tale signs
- Urgency and fear: "Your account will be closed in 24 hours", "unauthorised login detected", "you owe us money". Attackers pressure you to act before you think.
- A dodgy sender address: hover over the sender name. support@yourbank.com is not the same as support@yourbank.com.mx or support-yourbank@mail.ru.
- Links that don't match: hover over any link without clicking. If the address shown is not the official site, do not click it.
- Requests for credentials or money: legitimate companies never ask you to enter a password, send a gift card, or move money urgently by email.
When in doubt
If an email looks suspicious, do not reply, click or forward it. Mark it as spam or report it via your ticket portal, and tell the sender by a different channel if needed. Better to ask a colleague than to click.
