It is summer and the fish are biting. And so are the cyber criminals. Phishing is going on but don’t take the bait! Phishing is the attempt to steal your personal information over email. How can you keep yourself safe?
- Do not trust the name on an email look at the content of the email. If the name and the content don’t make sense—don’t click.
- If you receive a suspicious email with a link from somebody you know do not reply directly to the suspicious email. Confirm the email first by calling or emailing the contact directly.
- If you receive and email from what appears to be one of your vendors with a link asking to update your information – don’t click. Instead of clicking the link, log directly into their website. If you don’t see the same request on the site it was probably a phishing attempt.
- Check for wrong domains within a link for example: If an address should end in “.gov” ends in “.com” instead don’t click.
- Check for website links that are slightly misspelled. Don’t click. Take the time to do your own search.
- Do not trust a website just because it has a lock icon or “https” in the browser address bar. Originally this was thought to be a sign that websites were safe, but now cyber criminals are going the extra step and obtaining 3rd party verification that their sites are “safe”.
Written by Rhonda Craycraft
Rhonda is the General Manager of ATCOM Business Technology with 30 years of technology expertise.
