In the News

In Email Threats Increase, Impact Productivity, Kacy Zurkus discusses a recent study of over 600 high ranking business and IT personnel which identified the increasingly dangerous threat of email ransomware and scams. Zurkus states that over 80% of study participants were affected by an email threat or were realistically fearful of one occurring at their company. Zurkus also explains that study participants claimed email archiving and more effective training are key to preventing email attacks.

Our Take

Email scams and ransomware threaten everyone, not just businesses.  Malicious attackers can use an email phishing scheme to steal your personal information, finances, or account credentials, and can even lead to identity theft. Such attacks are often disguised to look like a legitimate and unassuming email from a reputable sender. Despite such appearances, these attempts are very dangerous to your personal security. Larger scale email attacks, those targeting individuals inside of companies in order to gain access to company data, threaten to risk the privacy and security of much larger swaths of people.

Recommendations

So how can you protect yourself from email scams?

• Know how to spot an email scam
• Be skeptical:  treat messages like they may have come from a stranger, and act accordingly
• Pay special attention to messages that threaten to cut off a service or promise unlikely rewards–these are intended to get you to act quickly without thinking
• Do not open any links directly from an email, text, or DM:
  • For messages from companies, use a search engine to navigate directly to the company site yourself and locate the information there
  • For messages from friends and family with links but very little context, text or call to confirm that they did send the message before clicking