How To Stop Phishing Emails? You Can't Avoid Them, But There Are Ways To Protect Yourself

Phishing emails are a type of cyber attack that target organizations. Phishing attacks can be used to steal user data, credentials, and money, as well as deliver malware to a recipient’s computer.

Phishing attacks are popular with cybercriminals because they are easy to carry out but can still be very effective. This makes it essential for organizations to have a strategy in place to detect and block phishing emails before they can cause any damage.

How Phishing Attacks Work

Phishing emails are created for various reasons that are often defined by how the email will work. For example, if the goal is to steal credentials, the phishing email may look like it's from a legitimate company with a link to a fake login page. Or, if the goal is to deliver malware, the email may have an attachment.
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In all cases, phishing emails use deception and manipulation to get the recipient to do something that benefits the attacker. Some common pretexts include issues with online accounts, package delivery errors, unpaid invoices, etc.
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How To Spot Phishing Emails

Some of the common techniques that phishers use to accomplish this and warning signs of a phishing email include:

• Lookalike Email Addresses: Phishers will often use an email address that looks like but is not quite the same as a legitimate, trusted one such as user@cornpany.com instead of user@company.com. Verify that an email address is correct before trusting an email.
• Misleading Links: In an email, the display text for a link does not have to be the same as the target of the link. Hover over a link with the mouse and verify that it goes to the right place before clicking it.
• Suspicious Attachments: Phishers will use email attachments to deliver malware to their targets. If an attachment is unnecessary, the wrong file type (like a ZIP file claiming to be an invoice), or a Microsoft Office document that requires macros, then it’s probably malware.
• Spelling and Grammar: Phishing emails commonly contain spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. If an email sounds wrong or doesn’t match the alleged sender’s voice, then it’s probably a scam.

Phishing emails are designed to use trickery and to convince the recipient to do something. As a general rule, If the request in an email seems odd or potentially dangerous, then be cautious of it.

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Ways to Stop Phishing Emails

Phishing attacks are a major risk to enterprise cybersecurity because they exploit an organization’s employees, rather than vulnerabilities in its software or cybersecurity infrastructure.

The prevalence of phishing attacks and the risk they pose to an organization makes it critical for an organization to take steps specifically targeted at protecting against phishing attacks. including:

• Security Awareness Training: Phishing emails are designed to trick employees into taking a certain action. Training employees to recognize and correctly respond to attempted phishing attacks is essential for mitigating the phishing threat.
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• Email Filtering: Many of the common phishing techniques, such as malicious links and lookalike email addresses can be detected by the software. An email filtering solution can identify phishing emails based on these warning signs and block them from reaching the intended recipient’s inbox.
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• Scan for Malicious Attachments: Malicious attachments are a common means of delivering malware via email. Scanning for malicious attachments and evaluating them in a sandboxed environment enables an organization to detect and prevent this malware delivery.
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• DLP Solution: Some phishing attacks are designed to steal sensitive information from an organization via email. A data loss prevention (DLP) solution can help to detect and block this attempted exfiltration.

In conclusion, phishing emails are a serious issue and require vigilance when it comes to online security. It's important to be aware of the signs of phishing messages, be mindful of links and attachments, and to always double-check the URL of a website before providing any personal information. Knowing what to look for can help you protect yourself from potential phishing attempts. Keeping these tips in mind will go a long way in protecting you from phishing emails and other forms of cybercrime. For more information check out: PhishProtection.