Phishing cyberattacks, which we have discussed in many of our TIPS, are those that, using fraudulent emails, try to trick users into consciously or unconsciously infecting the device with a malware or providing confidential information to a criminal who impersonate someone else’s identity.
Above all, at a business level we can feel protected by security solutions such as firewalls or antivirus, however, these tools are not always capable of blocking certain suspicious emails or detecting new types of malware, especially if we do not keep them properly updated.
For this reason and as users, both personally and professionally, of all types of communication technologies, in today’s TIP we want to highlight the following advices:
– Check the sender: Cybercriminals often impersonate the identities of people who are trusted by the user, so they can either put an alias (Name, Surname) to a totally unknown email address, or they can create an address very similar to that of the original sender by changing a letter (such as “t” for “i”).
– Pay attention to very obvious spelling mistakes: We can all make mistakes when writing, however, in terms of phishing attacks, it is very common for cybercriminals to use automatic translators that translate certain incoherent phrases. In addition, if the sender is an acquaintance, we may or may not recognize their way of writing in the message.
– If something is urgently required of you, be on the alert: This does not mean that all emails we receive, for example, from a family member, a client / supplier or a manager should be omitted because they are short and urgent. But we must suspect when the matter, the request itself or even the information that we are urgently required to provide does not fit us. Especially if it is indicated that it is entered in a form, clicking on a link or if we know the sender, but we do not have such a direct relationship with him (example of this could be, a phishing of the “CEO fraud” type).
– Check the links without clicking directly: The most common thing is that if they are very long links, with signs and symbols and not clear words, it is recommended to be cautious. However, the apparently correct links may also have been tampered with. A verification option is to leave the mouse cursor over the link, until a box with the real link appears. So you will be able to see if they match or, on the contrary, we must alert of a possible phishing attack.