The following post was submitted by Sean Dahlman of GMG member business Pantheon Computers and focuses on the importance of keeping your technology safe from cybercriminals. Are you part of a Greater Mankato member business and have an interest in writing a guest blog for us? Send 500-800 words to [email protected] or reach out to Greater Mankato Growth with further questions. 

With the advance of technology, many benefits have come to businesses—commerce taking place twenty-four hours a day and the ability to have meetings with workers half a world away, among others—but cybercriminals have learned to exploit technology, using practices such as phishing (planting a fraudulent link in an email) to gain access to business’s data and networks.  With social engineering, phishing, and spearfishing on the rise, it is important for you to raise employee awareness about these threats. Read on to discover how to keep your business safe from this type of intrusion.

What Phishing is and How to Prevent It

Phishing is an increasingly popular way for attackers to access company data and plant malware in a network. A phishing attempt involves putting a fraudulent link in an email to get the recipient to click on the link and unwittingly import malware into their company’s network. Spear phishing, a related type of attack, focuses on an organization or individual. Employees can be trained to recognize an attempt by looking for clues. One is misspellings and grammatical errors in the message. Another tipoff is a strange or suspicious sender’s address; if it looks strange or suspicious, don’t open the email. Yet another practice is to point the mouse arrow over a link to look at it without clicking. All are things an individual can do, and there are additional effective practices.

Focus on the Fundamentals

The best preventive measures are simple. According to a CompTIA article, getting the basics right is one of the soundest investments a business can make. Prevention, as always, is far less costly than repair. While tools, current antimalware definitions and operating system patches are important, much of your company’s preventive power lies with employees. Developing a culture oriented toward protecting a business’s technological assets is far more effective than placing blame if a phishing attempt gets past defenses. Phishing schemes have become so clever they can catch anyone unaware. An all-day training can be a good start, but the training should be a regular part of your business’ strategy for keeping itself safe.

As technology advances, cyberattack attempts will keep pace. Companies should remember one of their most powerful assets—their people. To learn how to train your employees and develop a culture of security, contact your technology advisor today.