Try This Phishing Test to Protect Your Technology

Does a particular message look a bit “phishy” to you? Get the inside scoop on whether there’s danger involved with this quick test that will identify fraudulent emails or files.  

How many emails are your staff members receiving on a daily basis: 50 each? Perhaps 100? More? In a recent Small Business Trends article, the researchers revealed that 1 in every 99 emails is a phishing attack, meaning your company is being bombarded on a daily basis with threats that could potentially bring your business to its knees. Even the most robust web-based email and website filtering software is bound to missing something eventually, so it is vital that you spend the time to educate your staff members on the dangers associated with phishing emails as well as how to identify a potentially fraudulent message. Attacks can cost your company anywhere from $50,000 to several million dollars when you consider the cost of remediation, lost revenue and productivity — and there are not many businesses that could weather that type of storm. Proactive cybersecurity support is extremely helpful, but you should also equip your staff members with the tools that they need to determine if particular emails are a threat, or simply an annoyance.

Clues Your Email Deserves a Closer Look

Phishing emails can be radically different, utilizing tactics such as appearing to be from known senders or friends, internal email address spoofing and more. Here are a few of the clues that your email deserves a closer look:

• Misspellings in the sender email address (Amazon.co instead of Amazon.com or Micros0ft.com instead of Microsoft.com).
• Notes from internal business leaders asking you to take unexpected actions, such as buying debit cards for out-of-town visitors to your company.
• Unusual vendor payment requests, such as changing the payment method from check to EFT or wire transfer for a large sum.
• Personal emails addressed to you from banks or credit card companies warning you that there’s been a breach and you need to immediately click a link to determine the status of your account.

These are often quite subtle, so it’s important to be wary! As you can see, there’s a massive range of potential phishing emails that can be used to infiltrate your organization.

Can You Test Emails for a Possible Phish?

The good news is that there’s quite a simple hack that allows you to test if your email is legitimate — or if there’s something a bit “phishy” going on. The website VirusTotal serves as a comprehensive scanning and reporting tool for viruses, allowing you to upload files, send links or search for specific language to determine if your email might be a known phishing attack. The added bonus is by searching, you’re adding this to the community-curated list of phishing attacks that can help others stay safe in the future.

While encouraging staff to test each suspicious email in the hopes of fending off a phishing attack may help, it’s not going to keep your business completely safe. The only way to protect your organization for the long term is to create comprehensive cybersecurity, backup and disaster recovery strategies in partnership with a proactive IT services provider. At Colorado Computer Support, we work with companies of all sizes to ensure that your business network runs efficiently and securely at all times. Contact our security experts today at 719-204-6516 or fill out our quick online form to schedule your free initial consultation. We provide customized IT solutions for all businesses, so you never have to worry about being offered a cookie-cutter solution that doesn’t meet the unique needs of your business.