Phishing is often the most common form of attack small businesses will encounter, and some employees can receive multiple phishing emails in a single day. Malicious actors will sometimes try to impersonate managers, business owners, and those higher up on the corporate ladder than the person they are attacking to lend an air of urgency to their email. While many traditional phishing prevention strategies will help stop these attacks, here are a few tips that managers and small business owners can consider to help reduce the effectiveness of impersonation techniques in phishing attacks!
Consistent Means of Communication
The first step managers and business owners can take to lower the risk of a successful phishing attack is to keep their means of communication consistent. Employees should have a strong idea of how they will be contacted and, if possible, the times that it is most likely they will be contacted. While email is the most common communication method, it is critical to ensure employees know whether or not to expect text messages or emails from other email accounts a higher up might be using. Small business owners and managers should then ensure they keep their contact methods consistent, which will help strange communication attempts stand out even more.
Clear Communication Habits
When the best means of communication have been established, small business owners should also develop obvious and consistent habits when sending emails or text messages. For example, if the business owner always signs their emails with a shortened version of their first name, then it will make impersonation attempts that use their full first name more obvious. These consistent communication habits will make it easier for both employees and clients to identify potential attacks. A regular signature and salutation can also be used to create a memorable personality in communication that employees will know to look out for to catch phishing emails.
Alternative Communication Methods
Even with regular means and methods of interaction, good impersonation attempts can come into an employee’s inbox. For this reason, it is critical that everyone knows a safe, reliable means of contacting their boss or business owner. Microsoft Teams, Slack, a business cell phone number, or some other alternative means of communication will allow a suspicious employee to quickly verify if a communication is valid and should be responded to. Sometimes a quick message on Teams can prevent a cyberattack from happening, so employees should feel comfortable reaching out to anyone else in the company if they are unsure about an email or text message they have received.
Summary
Preventing phishing attacks requires adequate training and the right cybersecurity tools, but the leaders in a company can also implement strong habits that help everyone better identify suspicious emails. Little things like this can help prevent attacks, and our cybersecurity experts here at Robinett Consulting want to bring even more strategies to your small business to improve its security. We believe that by combining strong habits with the best security services, small businesses can have the high-quality cybersecurity infrastructure they deserve.
