5 Hacks to Prevent Phishing Attacks Next Year

You probably have heard about this phishing. However, before we look at simple hacks to prevent phishing attacks in the upcoming year, let’s stop for a second and talk about phishing and how to prevent it with strategies and Virtual Private Network, a cybersecurity tool.

So, phishing involves multiple malicious techniques that hackers use to steal confidential and sensitive information. Phishing attacks have seen a significant rise over the past few years. As a result, 

The Post Covid-19 era has caused many organizations to shift to remote work environments. Due to this, phishing attacks have increased significantly. For example, there has been a 667% increase in email phishing attacks as per the data analyzed by Barracuda.

Why Are Phishing Attacks So Damaging?

To point out the severity of phishing attacks, 90% of all data breaches involve some form of a phishing attack, as per IBM. The cost of such attacks amounts to roughly 3.86 million dollars. Just in the last year, 76% of businesses reported facing a phishing attack.

What’s worse, these figures are only increasing day by day. Phishing attacks are difficult to identify. They’re designed to look authentic. Attackers usually construct phishing emails to appear as if they’re straight from government agencies or health care organizations.

Common phishing sources are usually: 

1. Phishing Emails
2. Phishing Websites

However, to learn tips and tricks on preventing phishing attacks, stay stick to this guide. We will provide you with strategies and hacks to prevent phishing attacks. 

5 Hacks to Prevent Phishing Attacks

Since phishing attacks are extremely difficult to detect, most attacks are executed properly and cause significant damages. However, a few streategies and tools can help protect yourself or your business from a phishing attack.

Here are the best five hacks that can help you save time and money in the long run:

Filter All Emails

On a day-to-day basis, you’ll receive a ton of spam emails. Among these emails, you might come across a phishing email. Phishing emails are the primary type of phishing attack. To be able to detect such emails, you need to utilize a Secure Email Gateway.

Using a secure gateway can block harmful emails and isolate them from ending up in your inboxes. In addition, reliable email gateways such as Proofpoint can alert you when any of your email accounts get compromised. 

Email filtering tools can help you filter and block 99.99% of all spam emails, making them extremely effective.

Email Inbox Protection

With email filtering, you can prevent phishing emails from making their way into your mailbox. But what if an email passed through the filter?

In that case, you’d need some tool that can detect and deter phishing emails from causing any harm right inside of your mailbox. Also, consider using a virtual private network to hide your online activity.

More specifically, you’d need a Post Delivery Protection tool. Again, tools like IRONSCALES are ideal for tackling such issues. These tools and software are powered by Artificial Intelligence to detect phishing emails.

Post Delivery Protection tool alerts users with banners, making detecting harmful emails extremely easy. After detection, such tools will remove suspicious emails. So, you don’t end up clicking on them accidentally.

Simulating Phishing Attacks

To prepare your employees to detect and react to a phishing attack, you need first to see whether your team is vigilant enough or not.

To best test your employees, you need to run drills. For example, simulating a phishing attack can prepare your employees to react effectively during an actual attack.

There are plenty of phishing simulation tools that come with phishing simulation templates. Additionally, organizations and businesses can customize attacks to make them more consistent with their own business.

The benefit of phishing simulations is that it helps ensure that everyone in your organization is familiar with phishing attacks and has the necessary skills to stop an attack. Also, check out how to protect your business from common cyber attacks. 

Phishing Awareness Training

Similar to simulation drills, it is important to educate employees about phishing attacks. People mistake using easy to crack passwords and can easily be fooled by authentic-looking malicious web pages or emails.

No one invests enough time to check emails for any suspicious signs. Hackers also exploit the fact that most people online don’t know much about cybersecurity and its practices. For example, most people have no idea how phishing attacks work and how dangerous they can be.

To deal with this, companies and businesses should run training and awareness programs to educate employees. A wide range of training materials can help employees become more aware of their cyber surroundings.

Isolating Email & Web

Isolating email and web content effectively potential cage threats and navigating them away from your device. This technique isolates threats, neutralizes them, and then delivers safe content to your device. 

You won’t be at risk even if you visit a malicious website or click on a phishing email, as threats will get isolated. Overall, it is an advanced solution to phishing attacks.

Wrapping Up!

Phishing attacks are gruesome and cause irreparable damages. However, there are prevention mechanisms and techniques to mitigate damages. 

In this guide, we’ve described 5 hacks that can help you protect yourself or your business from phishing attacks. But, overall, Prevention is key and the only thing that can help you stay afloat in today’s challenging cyberspace.