Phishing attacks occur when cyber criminals pose as an individual or organisation and send fake messages that appear to come from a trusted source, and you need phishing protection in your organisation to reduce the damage caused by cyber attackers.
Phishing scams normally have subject lines designed to prompt action, such as; Urgent, Important, Attention, Payment. They are designed to encourage victims ‘to act’ without realising they are being duped eg. click on a malicious link, visit a ‘fake’ website, open a dodgy document, download software onto a device.
In addition, to appeal to a wide audience and to boost their chances of success, cyber criminals typically mimic large trusted brands, so the emails appear to come from companies such as Microsoft (related to 43% of all brand phishing attempts globally), DHL, LinkedIn and Amazon.
Sophisticated and convincing, Verizon’s data breach report stated that 43% of security breaches involve phishing.
Phishing is usually successful due to two factors: low employee awareness and a lack of effective technology to detect and block phishing attempts.
Phishing risk assessments highlight how vulnerable your organisation is to phishing attacks
A phishing test, or phishing assessment, is undertaken to simulate a real-life example of a phishing scam, ultimately to see how successful an attack would be and how susceptible your organisation is.
Deceptive or malicious emails are sent to employees within an organisation in an attempt to coerce them to click on provided links, open file attachments, or provide access to sensitive information or systems.
Phishing assessments identify the risk to your organisation, they highlight the gaps in your defences that can be used by cyber criminals as an entry point to gaining access to your sensitive data and critical assets.
Undertaken randomly and regularly, and using carefully crafted content around relevant and timely subjects that your team members can relate to, phishing risk assessments are a fast and effective phishing protection method designed to gain insights into where you need to improve and strengthen your cyber security.
Phishing assessments educate employees to the dangers of phishing scams
With a rise in phishing attacks, email compromise and ransomware, cyber criminals are benefiting from a lack of security awareness within organisations. Phishing risk assessments raise awareness and educate employees of the nature and dangers of phishing scams
Phishing Protection from Infosec Partners
If you are looking to reduce the risk of hackers gaining access to sensitive information, then get in touch for more information regarding our phishing risk assessments.
