The technique of sending a fraudulent email, called phishing, is one of the means favored by cybercriminals to reach their target. These computer threats can take many forms. Most of the time, the objective will be the theft of personal and sensitive data, intrusion into the system to block or destroy hardware, slow down your activities, demand a ransom, etc.
The consequences of cyber-attacks are really harmful to businesses and professionals. Understanding them allows you to limit the risks and choose the most appropriate security solutions.
THE DANGERS OF CORPORATE CYBER ATTACKS
With the digitization of activities, IT fraud is on the rise. We are witnessing cyber attacks of all kinds, 91% of which use email as the main vector. Indeed, despite the progress made in terms of IT infrastructure protection tools in companies, humans remain a weak link and hackers intend to continue to exploit this. It is therefore essential to adopt the best solutions to protect sensitive data, but also to adopt best practices in order to avoid the traps of cybercriminals.
A computer attack in a company has several disastrous consequences that must be prevented. These are first of all physical impacts, but also financial, legal, and reputational impacts.
Computer equipment and facilities are the first items affected in a cyber attack. Computers and equipment in victimized businesses can become inaccessible or down. This can be a real problem when the smooth running of activities depends mainly on the computer system.
From a financial standpoint, this situation slows down employees and reduces the productivity of the company by creating possible losses. In addition, there are the costs of managing the crisis, the costs of restoring systems and repairing equipment, not to mention indirect costs depending on the extent of the damage caused.
The intrusion into the computer system of a principal, the theft of data and the publication of personal information of customers can lead to legal proceedings and have many repercussions, whether legal or concerning the image. of the company. A cyberattack is therefore an event that can destroy a company’s reputation and cause it to lose the trust of its customers .
Pay attention to the sender’s address
You must be careful when you receive a message from an email address that you do not know and that is not expected. Usually, fake domain names that look like legitimate sites will be used. The message may also appear to come from a friend or a contact whose identity has been spoofed. When the sender makes an unusual request, take the time to contact them through another channel to find out more.
The presentation of the email
The general appearance of the email can give you some clues. It often happens that malicious emails are poorly worded, with misspellings or misused expressions, the addition of an overly prominent logo, a foreign address in the body of the text, etc.
The type of message
Malicious messages are generally not personalized because they are sent to a large number of targets. Be careful though, sometimes they are (often with your email address rather than your first and last name). Emails that mention a file, an invoice or a subject that does not speak to you directly should be considered with great caution. Messages that have the effect of making you react in an emergency by emphasizing empathy or fear are also suspect (example: “hurry up”, “beware your system has been compromised”, “you have nothing left. only 24 hours to answer this email “, etc.).
Communication of personal data
You should be wary of emails that ask for your personal information or a password. Always question the legitimacy of the expressed request, because no credible organization will ask you to communicate your bank card code, a password or another access code. This is personal information that is up to you Do not give out confidential information without verification, even when the request appears to come from someone close to you.
Check links in email
Avoid clicking directly on links that appear in an email. Before deciding to access it or not, you can leave the mouse over it to display the full link (without clicking). Check that it is legitimate and consistent. Note that this manipulation is not possible via a phone screen. As a precaution, it is better to open the site from which the email is supposed to come directly from a search engine, so you are guaranteed to be on the real platform.
HOW TO REACT TO RECEIVING A FRAUDULENT EMAIL?
By paying attention to the criteria described above, you will know when to have doubts about a message received. When you receive a fraudulent email, you must not respond to it and above all you must avoid opening the attachments therein . Simply delete the email and empty the trash.
If the email is received in your professional account, report it to the IT department and your company’s information systems security manager . They will take care of making the necessary checks. In this case, you should wait for their return before deleting the email.
CHOOSE THE NETEXPLORER SOLUTION FOR BETTER PROTECTION OF YOUR DATA
NetExplorer is a cloud platform that provides data hosting for companies and professionals in several industries. It is designed to adapt to your needs thanks to its different functionalities. Accessible from any computer or smartphone connected to the Internet, this is a safe and convenient way to store and manage sensitive data.
NetExplorer facilitates the sharing of large files with its employees or with customers. In just a few seconds, you can transfer documents or other file types with no size or format limitation.
The platform has many features. It allows you to create common folders with your collaborators to easily exchange files. Creating access rights for each folder is a way to guarantee confidentiality and secure access for all users by defining their different rights: read the file, modify or invite.
Thanks to automatic notifications, you are informed as soon as a new file is uploaded to NetExplorer or has been modified by a user. Event logs allow you to monitor all activities on your platform. You have a detailed history of all the actions that have been taken by each employee to ensure their confidentiality.
