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Phishing: A serious global concern for small businesses

ByLakshmi Ekbal Bail

May 12, 2021

Truth be told, there are many small businesses that are still not worried about security breaches. Many are assuming that they don’t have enough data for hackers to be interested, while there are others who simply don’t have a big budget for cybersecurity. However, cybersecurity is more about proactive measures, and those don’t have to cost a fortune. Most hacks and breaches happen because hackers manage to exploit existing vulnerabilities. In case of phishing, hackers are basically targeting the human weaknesses. In this post, we are discussing how phishing happens and what small businesses can do to avoid the same. 

What exactly is phishing?

Phishing is a type of attack, where hackers try to get sensitive information by tricking users. This is a form of social engineering, where the attacker may look like a trusted source, so the user ends up believing the email and providing the information asked. Sometimes, a phishing attack may mean clicking a link, which downloads a malware on the system, or it could be something as simple as asking for personal or business information. 

What can be done to prevent phishing attacks?

There are some basic steps that every small business can consider for preventing phishing attacks – 

  1. First and foremost, ensure that employees are aware of phishing. Cybersecurity training is an aspect that small businesses often ignore. Make sure that you have a team that knows what it takes to train and inform employees and insiders. 
  2. Conduct phishing simulations. There is no better way of knowing phishing than experiencing how that happens. Phishing simulations can be really handy for giving employees a fair idea of how these attacks happen. 
  3. Use MFA where possible. Multifactor authentication ensures that just a password doesn’t lead to a hack. There can be second or third layers of protection in form of onetime passwords and security questions. 
  4. Enforce password management policies. Recommend a password management tool to employees and ensure that only strong passphrases with at least 16 characters are used for all accounts and devices. 
  5. Use antimalware software. There are many suites available for countering malicious files, and these can be quite handy. Use an advanced antimalware and antivirus suite, and make sure that all networked devices are placed behind firewalls. 

There are also email spam filters that can be really handy. In case a phishing attack happens, every small business should have an incident response plan in place.