Security threats come in various forms and from many different directions. You’ve probably heard of viruses, trojans, keyloggers and ransomware. Want to know what many of these threats have in common? They can all be the result of phishing attacks.
Bad actors use bait – usually in the form of a seemingly legitimate email, file attachment or link — to “phish” for victims. These emails can be incredibly hard to tell as they often mimic legitimate emails that you receive on a regular basis. Because this bait is usually spread via email, it’s hard for security software to filter out. That’s what makes it so scary.
Even if you have security software, phishing is a serious threat, one that can expose you to ransomware. Here's how to avoid these dangerous emails.
- Sender | Do name and address look phishy?
- Greeting? | Is the email to you or a general “customer”?
- Email Content | Does it appear phishy or push you toward an action or request info? Bad Grammar and spelling?
- URL | Hover mouse over URL, does it look phishy?
- When in doubt, delete | If you’re not sure about the sender and getting a phishy feeling, just delete.
The fallout from the WannaCry ransomware attack will likely reach into the billions of dollars according to many estimates. The malware attack largely targeted older Windows XP and some Windows 8 systems along with unpatched newer systems that were within many of the affected businesses. Many of the affected organizations were continuing to run some legacy application that could not run on a newer version of Windows. This of course is a game of risk roulette considering microsoft stopped activly supporting these older systems. WannaCry demanded a relatively small amount of money to recover your information but the hit to the reputation of the organizations that fell victim to WannaCry far exceeds any monetary value.