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Can you Recognize a Phishing Message?

January 12, 2017

The preferred method for compromising your systems starts with a phishing attack. For those that have been living under a rock, a phishing message is one that appears to come from a legitimate organization, but is false. The message tries to get the recipient to click on a link or open an attachment. Phishing attacks can be targeted or just generic transmissions. Targeted attacks are pretty scary since the attacker typically does some advanced reconnaissance in order to gather valid information. This could include real names, nick names, project names, opposing parties in a legal case, etc. The largest risk in a phishing attack is the human being. Are your employees (or even you) capable of recognizing a phishing attempt?

Training is a big part of protecting yourself from phishing attacks. There are a lot of ways to train employees, but giving them a phishing test is pretty standard. Can you recognize a phishing message? There are several free testing sites at OpenDNS or SonicWall.

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