Phishing Awareness: Don’t take the bait...
Hackers are Trying to Reel You In
Email is an essential part or our everyday communications. It is also one of the most common methods that hackers use to attempt to gain access to sensitive information. Studies show that more than 90% of data breaches start with a phishing attack.
Phishing uses fraudulent messages designed to appear to be from a legitimate person, business, or organization. They attempt to trick recipients into downloading harmful attachments or divulging sensitive information, including passwords, bank account numbers, and social security numbers.
How to Spot a Phish
There are often clues hidden in a phishing message that you can use to determine if a message you have received is a phishing attack including:
Phishing attacks may attempt to create a sense of urgency meant to inspire a quick user response, generally by indicating the user needs to take action immediately in order to:- Avoid a negative consequence like having email access shut off
- Get a positive benefit like a financial incentive
- See or learn something exciting or forbidden
- Lists a sender that differs from the email address it is sent from
- Claims to be from a legitimate company but come from an email address that is not linked to that company (i.e. claims to be from Apple but comes from a Gmail account)
- Has no branding of any kind (NEMCC or other company Logo, email signature, etc.)
- Uses unusual words, syntax, or phrasing; contains simple spelling and grammar mistakes
- Includes direct links to login pages
- Includes an attachment with a generic name