Explaining common scams: Vishing, phishing, and smishing

Businesses are expected to keep consumer data and sensitive information safe and protected. While there is no denying that compliance is an aspect that needs attention, especially with the privacy laws, but cybersecurity is more than just that. Scams are very common, and hackers often are targeting insiders, like partners and employees. In fact, data shows that most of the recent breaches in sectors like retail have happened through customers, partners, and employees. Knowing about common scams can help your business in upgrading security concern protection. Here’s more on vishing, phishing and smishing. 

1. Phishing. Phishing mostly happens through email, where the hacker will ask the user to either divulge sensitive information, or they will send an attachment that contains malware. Phishing emails have caused massive damage to businesses, primarily because cybercriminals use various social engineering tactics to lure employees. Finding phishing emails are not that hard. Just ask your employees to open any email that has come from an unknown sender with care – Period. Also, the link and URL of such emails often have mistakes in form of spelling errors. Attachments can contain malware, so downloads should be done with care. 
2. Vishing. Vishing is another form of scam, where fraudsters pose as genuine people from banks and other institutions and encourage users to give out personal or business information. Your employees need to know what vishing calls are all about, and if it relates to business activities or information that impacts your company, make sure that employees report the same. 
3. Smishing. The last one on this list is called Smishing, where phone text messages are used to get information out of users. It may sometimes seem urgent, so the user ends up clicking the link, which either asks for information, gets malware downloaded, or sometimes just takes away money from the account. If your employees get smishing emails, ask them to report, especially if it seems that the hacker wants business information. 

These are just some of the common scams that are impacting businesses. Having a clear plan for cybersecurity, employee training, and protecting networked devices, IT resources, and network resources can go a long way in preventing such breaches and scams. Make sure that your employees are trained and aware of the common ways in which hackers use them to attack businesses, so that they don’t make the mistakes that can eventually lead to a major breach or security incident.