Over the years, phishing attacks have become more sophisticated. People used to know what to look for and could spot one of these attacks a mile away. Now, they are smarter and more realistic than ever. This means that many people are getting tricked into sharing sensitive data, whether this is clicking on a link or providing information. In particular, businesses are finding that they are falling victim to phishing attacks. This is the last thing you want as an owner since you store a lot of sensitive information for clients. How can this be? Let’s take a closer look at why this is happening.
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Training is Not Provided
A lot of employees are left to their own devices when it comes to cybersecurity. In other words, they are not being given the right training to know how to avoid security threats. Without this training, they may not realize what a phishing attack is or the best ways to spot that something is not right. So, this ends in disaster as they fall for the scam and this can get the organization into a lot of trouble. Training is going to be necessary in order to know how to identify a phishing email and how to deal with it.
Therefore, phishing attacks are going to continue to affect businesses until they provide adequate training. This means educating their staff on phishing attacks and how they operate. Once employees have this knowledge, it means they can be vigilant and spot danger. This way, you can lower the risk of something bad happening.
There is Scam Investment
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Over the years, scammers have made money. This means that they are investing in more sophisticated schemes to trick users and businesses. So, they are able to buy software and other technical elements that are going to help them succeed. Simply, a lot of people are not prepared for this. All the time, new scams are coming and are smarter than the last.
So, when you combine a lack of training from businesses and a lack of awareness in general, paired with scam investment, this is not a good thing. It means that scammers are more likely to be successful. It is a vicious circle and more needs to be done to stop phishing scams and be protected against them.
Employees are Being Careless
Sometimes, it is not an organization’s fault that they fall victim to a phishing attack. Sometimes, this can be down to individual employees and how they are working. Namely, they are being careless and click on links or enter information without thinking about it. For example, if they are allowed to browse the internet at work, this is something that can happen.
So, how can this carelessness be stopped? Well, again, it might be advisable to educate the team and bring this point to their attention. You may also be beneficial to introduce a new browsing policy where this can only be done on an employee’s personal device.
The Internet Offers Phishing Tools
Once, there was only a limited and rare number of people that were able to carry out phishing scams. But these numbers are growing all the time. This is all down to the internet and the freedom of information you can access. Indeed, you can find almost anything you want. One thing that is available is phishing tools. This makes it easy for people to learn about them and create their own scams to exploit businesses.
Again, despite the dangers that exist from phishing, businesses are not taking this seriously. So, while the number of threats rises, businesses need to match this with good investment against them. Anybody can use a phishing kit or find this type of information online, which is scary.
Businesses Do Not Want to Spend Money
The last few years have been hard for everyone. In particular, businesses have been hit hard, so they are now watching their budgets. This means tightening their belts and cutting out unnecessary expenses. But, unfortunately, there are some businesses that are cutting back on the wrong things. For example, they do not want to invest in more and regular training on phishing attacks, as well as not spend the money to have proper backup processes.
So, this results in two bad things for businesses. First of all, they are more at risk from phishing attacks. If employees are not keeping up-to-date on how to deal with the latest attacks, this leaves businesses vulnerable. Then, there is the fact that they do not have good backup processes in place in case there is an attack. What happens is that they are going to lose data and not be able to restore the systems they had prior to the attack. So, this can mean losing money, customers and integrity in the future.
Ultimately, businesses really are falling victim to phishing attacks and the number of people affected by this is growing all the time. More has to be done now to prevent this problem later on.
