A phishing email can look completely legitimate.
It might appear to come from a manager asking for a payment, a supplier requesting information, or a familiar platform asking an employee to sign in. In a busy workday, even a careful employee can click before realizing something is wrong.
For businesses, the consequences can be significant. A compromised account can give cybercriminals access to company information, financial systems, customer data and other sensitive resources.
That is why phishing protection for businesses needs to go beyond telling employees to watch out for suspicious emails. Businesses need the right combination of employee awareness, security tools and IT support to reduce their risk.
Why Phishing Is a Business Risk
Phishing attacks are designed to manipulate people into taking an action that benefits the attacker.
Cybercriminals may impersonate executives, vendors, financial institutions or business platforms to convince employees to reveal credentials, open malicious files or transfer money.
A compromised account could allow an attacker to:
- Access company email and files
- Steal login credentials
- Send phishing messages to other employees
- Access cloud applications
- Expose customer or employee information
- Facilitate financial fraud
As a business grows, so does the number of employees, accounts and devices that need to be protected.
Train Employees to Recognize Phishing
Employees are an important part of your organization’s security strategy.
Regular security awareness training can help employees recognize common warning signs, including:
- Unexpected requests for passwords or sensitive information
- Urgent requests for payments or transfers
- Suspicious links or attachments
- Messages designed to create panic or urgency
- Unusual requests from executives or coworkers
- Slightly altered email addresses or domains
- Login pages that don’t look right
Employees should also know what to do when they receive something suspicious. Having a clear process for reporting phishing attempts makes it easier to respond quickly.
Use Multi-Factor Authentication
Passwords alone aren’t enough to protect business accounts.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires users to verify their identity using an additional method. If a phishing attack captures an employee’s password, MFA can make it significantly harder for an attacker to use those credentials.
Businesses should consider MFA for critical systems such as business email, Microsoft 365, cloud applications, VPNs and administrative accounts.
Strengthen Business Email Security
Employee awareness is important, but businesses shouldn’t rely on employees to identify every phishing attempt.
Email security tools can help detect and filter malicious messages before they reach an employee’s inbox. Depending on the organization’s environment, this may include:
- Phishing and spam filtering
- Malicious link detection
- Attachment scanning
- Email authentication
- Threat monitoring
- Security policies
These controls add another layer of protection between phishing attempts and your employees.
What If an Employee Clicks a Phishing Link?
It can happen. The important thing is having a response process in place.
If an employee clicks a suspicious link, enters their credentials or opens a questionable attachment, they should report it immediately. Waiting because they’re worried about getting in trouble can give an attacker more time to access business systems.
Depending on the situation, your IT team or technology provider may need to:
- Reset compromised credentials
- Revoke active sessions
- Review account activity
- Scan affected devices
- Check for unauthorized access
- Determine whether other accounts were affected
A fast response can help limit the potential impact of a compromised account.
Phishing Protection Is Part of Business Cybersecurity
Phishing is only one part of the cybersecurity risks businesses face.
Protecting your organization may require a combination of employee training, MFA, email security, device protection, access controls, backups and ongoing monitoring.
The right approach will depend on your business, industry, technology environment and risk profile.
Protect Your Business From Phishing
Phishing attacks continue to evolve, and businesses can’t rely on employees simply spotting every suspicious message.
A stronger approach combines informed employees with technology and security processes designed to reduce risk at multiple points.
At Servall, we help businesses strengthen their IT and cybersecurity environments with solutions designed around their specific technology needs. Our team can help identify potential vulnerabilities and determine which security measures make sense for your organization.