How to Protect Your Illinois Business Against Phishing

Phishing is one of the most dangerous cyber threats facing your Illinois business today. While anti-virus and anti-malware software can protect your business from many types of cyber attacks, your employees remain a potential weak link in the systems that protect your networks. That's why phishing must be at the top of your priority list when it comes to cybersecurity. To protect your Illinois business against phishing, you need to train your employees to recognize and resist this type of cyber attack.

What is Phishing?

During a phishing attack, cyber criminals email, message, or call individual employees of a business and try to convince them to hand over sensitive information by posing as someone else. For example, they might spoof the email address of a manager in the organization to make an email seem like it comes from a person in authority.

Successful phishing attacks can trick employees in Illinois businesses into sending payments or client details to a criminal. These kinds of attacks can result in significant financial losses for the business and lead to its clients becoming victims of identity fraud. Many businesses suffer reputation damage after they fall victim to a phishing attack.

How to Train Employees to Resist Phishing Attacks

Phishing is a form of social engineering, which is the art of manipulating individuals to act in a way that benefits the criminal. If you want to protect your business against phishing, you must train your employees to spot the tell-tale signs of a phishing attack and teach them how to respond.

One tactic cyber criminals often use is to create a sense of urgency for their victim. For example, they might tell employees that a business deal depends on a payment being made right away. Training must involve encouraging your employees to always stop and think before they go ahead and comply with any instruction. You must reassure them that they will never get into trouble for double-checking that instructions they receive actually come from someone within the organization.

Anti-phishing training also involves teaching employees to spot the tricks that scammers commonly use to convince their victims that they are someone else. For example, they might register URLs that are very similar to real client or banking websites to trick employees into revealing bank details or sending payments to the wrong person. A comprehensive training program can teach employees to spot these often used tricks and help them avoid falling for a phishing attack.

How a Managed IT Company Can Help Protect Your Illinois Business

Setting up a suitable training program for your own employees can be overwhelming. A managed IT company can help you implement a cybersecurity awareness training program that will bring all your employees up to speed with the latest generation of cyber threats, including phishing, and equip them with the skills they need to protect your Illinois business.

Often, managed IT companies put cybersecurity awareness training in place as part of an overall IT strategy. Alongside software that can check your systems for viruses, trojans, and suspicious activity, employee training can help to keep your Illinois business safe. To find out how you can take action now to mitigate all the IT risks facing your business, get in touch with a trusted managed IT company that specializes in cyber security for Illinois small business today.