Phishing scams are nastier than ever this year. In a phishing scheme attempt, the attacker poses as someone or something the recipient recognizes and attempts to trick the target into divulging credentials, clicking a malicious link, or opening an attachment that infects the user’s system with malware, trojan, or zero-day vulnerability exploit.  

This often leads to a ransomware attack. In fact, 90% of ransomware attacks originate from phishing attempts. 

A few important cyber security tips to remember about phishing schemes include: 

• Know which links are safe and which are not – hover over a link to discover where it directs to. You might be surprised.
• Be suspicious of the emails sent to you in general – look and see where it came from and if there are uncharacteristic spelling and/or grammatical errors. 
• If you have someone internally in your organization, e-mailing or texting you with a sense of urgency to transfer money or install something on your computer, be highly suspicious.  Always verify with that person verbally or over the phone. It’s common for attackers to impersonate your coworkers.  
• Lastly, enroll your company into a cyber security awareness training program that can simulate these types of attacks on a routine basis and offer training on the latest threats.

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