THATS RIGHT…
We are rapidly closing on the time of year when we should all be preparing to wind down, make plans for the Christmas vacations, a time with families and friends.
It is a time to have fun and laughter and buy something special for our loved ones, big or small.
THEY DON’T TAKE CHRISTMAS OFF THOUGH.
It’s at these times when we are most at risk from the world of the unscrupulous hackers and scammers who are bombarding us with emails, texts messages and calls, for what seems like every minute of the day!
All it takes is a second of not stopping and thinking whilst we are distracted in our own work and activities to lose, what potentially could be out hard-earned hundreds and thousands of pounds in cash from our bank accounts, never to be seen again in some instances.
Whilst consumers are very much at risk, those targeting businesses, and impersonating the Managing Director, Finance Director or any other higher-ranking position and sending spoof emails to pay a supplier by providing a bogus invoice and bank details to lower ranking colleagues in the accounts or payments departments, who wouldn’t think twice of acting upon ‘official’ instructions.
THE BOSS TOLD ME TO DO IT…
There was one case where an MD’s emails and calendar had been had been hacked, so the scammer knew that he was on boarding a plane.
The lady in accounts, knowing the MD was going on holiday then got caught by the rogue email asking for an urgent payment to be made and lost £20K in the process. One quick phone to double check details would have stopped this mistake.
The MD did not have a habit of making such request by email so should have been a red flag!
INTERNAL CHECKS & STAYING SAFE
Do you conduct internal email tests with false details to see how many responses you receive? If you have an internal IT department or an outsourced IT supplier, ask them to conduct quarterly testing and make that the basis of staff training on how to spot rogue and spoof emails.
All employees should treat company money as their own, if not least to protect pay rises and the risk of losing jobs if the business goes under due to being scammed and having thousands of pounds in cyber theft.
Businesses also need to look into cyber insurance. It is a necessary expense in this day and age but one that can potentially save the business from going under.
More to the point in terms of technology, it is vital to have email security in place. In short, it’s where emails pass through an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based email cleaner before arriving in your Inbox.
Mail is scanned and quarantined with only legitimate emails being forwarded onto to the recipient. Having use of this system myself (at a very affordable price per email account), 90% plus of all junk emails are stopped at source.
Remember, this is NOT the same as having a ‘junk’ folder in Outlook as this is already ‘delivered’ to your Inbox!
MAXIMUM NETWORKS
Don’t get caught out, get in touch with the Maximum Networks team team today on 0330 102 7444 or using our contact form