How to prevent phishing and
whaling happening to you
Cyber threats continue to be on the rise and incidents of whaling and phishing has in particular had an increase in the past years. Hackers create sophisticated attacks where they exploit vulnerabilities to acquire classified information, company funds or the like leaving companies with data- and financial losses.
’’For the second year in a row, phishing was the leading infection vector, identified in 41% of incidents.’’
These attacks are increasing worldwide and often target high-level executives or individuals with access to sensitive data. The imposters trick the individuals into sharing valuable information or transferring funds. The attacks often employ social engineering tactics with impersonating a senior executive to create an urgent task and thereby bypass suspicion. The attackers research a specific organization, gather information from public sources, and thereby craft a phishing email from a senior executive. These attacks can cause significant financial losses and/or data breaches.
‘Can I prevent phishing and whaling attacks?’
Yes, you can! Different preventative measures can be utilized to keep your organization from falling victim to these scams, which includes:
- Educate employees on phishing and whaling with relevant training sessions focusing on identifying common tactics and avoiding malicious attacks.
- Double check sending address on emails as a majority of attacks originate from e-mails. One preventative measure for this is to call the impersonated individual before acting on the email.
- Employees should verify requests for funds or data when the person requesting the information originates through a different communication channel than typically used internally.
- Implement strict policies for employees when transferring/requesting funds or sensitive information both for inside use and to third parties. This should include multi-factor authentication and approval processes as it can prevent unauthorized access to data and finances.
- Use technology solutions such as anti-phishing software to detect and prevent attacks thereby blocking access for a potential imposter.
Today’s cyber-attacks are more prevalent, creative, and faster than ever. This calls for cyber security awareness training and best practices from every employee to combat the malicious attacks. Backup and disaster recovery solutions will aid in keeping phishing and whaling attackers at bay. Anycloud BaaS for Veeam and Anycloud DRaaS for Veeam includes air-gapping, insider threat protection and more powerful features. Furthermore, Anycloud BaaS for Veeam can be combined Anycloud Object Storage for Veeam with immutability. This guarantees that data never can be modified or deleted. This provides the tools for you to overcome security hurdles and keeping critical data safeguarded.
Benjamin Falk Elveng
Anycloud COO