Establishing Phishing Prevention Best Practices Is Crucial To Thwart Cyber Attacks Launched By Threat Actors!

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In general, any email account could be receiving several phishing emails per month. ‘Phishing’ is a broad term that mostly applies to organizations and must be deeply understood to develop and maintain phishing prevention best practices. Spear phishing is a term used specifically for phishing that targets certain individuals.

Phishing attacks are known to occur when an email is designed and sent in a particular manner by malicious actors to manipulate the recipient and make them click dubious links or open malicious attachments. Although maintaining best practices to avoid phishing attacks looks complicated, it’s simple and a matter of common sense.

How To Detect Phishing Attacks?

Sometimes it is tricky to identify phishing attacks if malicious actors use sophisticated methods. Such cases require professional anti-spam and anti-virus software and reputed email clients. However, the following information could help in detecting a phishing email quickly.

Scrutinize URL links. They could closely resemble the genuine URL of an organization but could be malicious.
Any authorized resource of an organization will not send unsolicited emails.
Any legitimate organization’s email doesn’t usually force you to visit their links or websites urgently.
An email with silly spelling or grammatical errors is most probably malicious though pretending to be legitimate.
An email by a legitimate organization never asks for your credentials or sensitive information.

By looking at the above factors, one knows that it only takes an untrained person to be trapped. Ensure proper training of employees and test them with simulated phishing examples. It’s an exercise of how to mitigate phishing attacks at the ground level.

MORE : How to detect phishing attacks?

How To Prevent Phishing And Spoofing With Phishing Prevention Best Practices?

For a full protection umbrella, do follow these best phishing protection practices recommended by cyber experts.

Always Use The Right Prevention Tools

Always look for the right tools, such as anti-spam software and phishing prevention software. You can analyze the costs and go for an option that provides the required features. For instance, email phishing prevention software combined with spam protection, malware, and ransomware can offer advanced security against phishing attacks. The essential anti-phishing software only helps you examine emails with suspicious attachments and links.

Develop Proper PC Protection

You should properly maintain your PCs to secure confidential data. Proper PC protection can be supported by installing a robust anti-virus program and a firewall to prevent malicious intrusions. Firewall installation is essential as it blocks malicious network traffic and only allows entry to legitimate emails. And efficient anti-virus software helps correctly scan the email, extract any viruses present, and prevent access to the computer.

Be Alert Of Infectious Emails

As mentioned earlier, you should pre-examine an email by checking various factors. The spelling or grammatical mistakes and infectious links are the common factors indicative of phishing threats. Hence, one has to avoid opening links and attachments sent by unknown entities.

Using the TLS/SSL certificate and digitally signing confidential emails can also add additional security. Digital certification helps security software and programs to identify emails as secure as malicious actors cannot alter their content or attachments.
One of the most significant phishing prevention best practices is the SPF or Sender Policy Framework, an email authentication tool to detect forged or spoofed emails. SPF is an answer to the question of how to prevent phishing and spoofing at the same time.

Get Strong Password Protection And Avoid Usage Of Removable Media

Password protection should not be ignored and wisely taken care of using strong characters. Also, avoid storing your passwords on browsers. This aspect may not be directly harmful but can severely impact if your system gets compromised by a malicious actor. Removable media such as USB drives, SD cards, iPods, or MP3 players must strictly be not used with official systems. If their use is inevitable, ensure proper scanning before and after connectivity.

Detect Spear-phishing Attacks

Spear phishing is a phishing attack type targeted at a specific individual or official rather than a group or organization. Its target can be CEOs, CIOs, or an employee of the organization. To avoid becoming victim to spear-phishing attempts, one has to be aware of the necessary steps of how to investigate phishing emails. Spear phishing attacks can be identified as the message usually evokes a sense of urgency and fear. Another factor is the incorrect email address that seems similar to the official address. Spear phishing is an advanced form of phishing that takes time and in which attackers invest much to obtain the victim’s personal information.

Above, we discussed some fundamental methodologies on how to stop phishing emails. The most important aspect is to be proactive and take preventive measures instead of being reactive after an incident occurs. It also requires being alert at all times. The phishing prevention best practices must never be overlooked, as they are an integral part of the overall cybersecurity setup.