The increasing volume of cyberattacks is a challenge for everyone. No one is safe; you cannot neglect to protect the safety of your personal information just because you think you are a nobody. For businesses, information security is a critical component of operations rather than an optional extra.
Among the many types of cyberattacks is phishing, a simple form of cyberattack with the potential of causing the most damage. Phishing attacks are easy to identify and avoid, but the impact of phishing can prove to be catastrophic for a business.
Dealing with the attack alone isn’t enough. You also need to work towards minimising the impact of a phishing attack on your business in the long run. We are going to discuss how you can minimise the impact of phishing attacks in several easy steps.
Raise Awareness
The one step you want to immediately take after falling victim to a phishing attack is raising awareness among key stakeholders. This means equipping employees with the ability to spot phishing attacks to prevent further attacks from harming your business. Phishing emails and websites are relatively easy to separate from the real deal through careful scrutiny.
You also need to raise awareness among your customers. When your site is cloned, your customers are at risk of giving their personal details to attackers. You need to educate customers on how to verify that they are indeed visiting your business website. Adding information on how to stay protected online is also recommended.
Monitor and Report
Actively shutting down attackers that try to mimic your business’s digital assets is another thing you can do to minimise the impact of phishing attacks on your business. You need to begin scanning the World Wide Web for attempts to clone your site for malicious purposes.
There are third-party service providers that can help simplify the process too. FraudWatch International has years of experience in performing anti-phishing scans and prevention. You can find out more about their services and how you can benefit from them at fraudwatchinternational.com/services/anti-phishing/.
On-Site Optimizations
As an added measure, there are ways to strengthen your site and make it less likely to be cloned or used in a phishing attack. Adding a verifiable SSL certificate, for instance, is a good start. The green bolt icon on the side of the address bar is easy enough for users to spot.
The same is true with your email server. You need to use encryption and security technologies such as TLS so that the receiving servers can properly identify the validity of your domain. This helps reduce the risk of phishing emails looking like they came from your domain name, which further reduces the impact of phishing attacks on your business.
Last but certainly not least, understand that the fight against phishing attacks and other cybersecurity risks is an ongoing process rather than a one-time thing. Regular evaluations, constant improvements, and a more comprehensive information security strategy are ingredients for more secure business operations in the cloud. Once you have these elements in place, protecting your business will become easier.
