Fortify Your Defenses Against Phishing Attacks

Key steps to fortify your defenses against phishing attacks by strengthening your weakest link — people.

When it comes to cybersecurity threats, phishing tops the list as one of the most consequential dangers we face. By leveraging advances in technology, highly sophisticated phishing attacks are proliferating at an intense rate in both volume and scale — eclipsing most security layers designed to detect and thwart the attacks. Furthering the challenge, is that phishing attacks increasingly focus attention on people because the human layer is easy to exploit.

As phishing attacks turn the attention to people, the primary attack vector used is email. Phishing emails employ various tactics using attachments, fake domains, malvertising campaigns that feature updates or downloads, infected dangerous software and exploit kits — just to name a few. It’s widely reported that more than 90 percent of successful hacks and data breaches stem from phishing scams, emails crafted to lure their recipients to click a link, open a document or forward information to someone they shouldn’t.

While it remains imperative to have high performing phishing detection and protection services in place, training and educating people must become part of the strategy if you are going to effectively combat phishing attacks.

Here are 3 actionable ways, aside from technology investments, to fortify your defenses against phishing attacks:

1. Proactively identify phishing susceptibility.
2. Bolster training for those who have the biggest target on their back. Technology is now the most targeted sector and developers are a growing target.
3. When it comes to phishing, there is no such thing as ‘set it and forget it’. Between changes in the workforce and evolving threats, knowledge is not a constant. Training and education must be an ongoing, consistent effort that evolves alongside the threat landscape.