Increase Employee Phishing Awareness through Anti Phishing Software
In any enterprise, the greatest concern when it comes to information security is the threat posed by social engineering-“the art of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information”- and phishing-“the fraudulent practice of sending e-mails purporting to be from legitimate companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information.” Through phishing is already a mainstay in identity theft attacks, a new method of phishing attack is creating great havoc across the world. Known as spear phishing, it targets a specific organization or a specific user to seek unauthorized access to confidential information. Just as a fisherman uses a spear to target a single fish, spear Phishing targets a single person at a time. Unlike Phishing attacks, where mass emails are sent to hundreds and thousands of people, in spear Phishing attacks personalized emails sent to targeted individuals. Spear Phishing attacks have become so refined that today it is very difficult to identify and avoid them. Hence, employee awareness programs and anti-Phishing technologies are not quite effective in preventing employees from becoming victims. This is because these products and services address the "process and technology" aspect of security but do not adequately address 'people risk'. Instead of an incident-based reactive approach towards phishing, what is required is a phishing diagnostic solution. With people and process being the two most vulnerable areas, hackers specifically target these two areas, as they are well aware that these are the most difficult zones to guard. With a diagnostic solution, enterprises can ensure Phishing awareness by simulating a Phishing attack and then capturing a user's potential reaction to a real attack. It proactively educates users and helps them identify phishing attacks so they can avoid becoming phish baits in the future. Let’s see how it works. Enterprises need to install the anti Phishing software internally within the organization, tailored with information about people, processes, and technology. It launches a customized Phishing attack at the target audience and tracks their responses. Social behaviors towards the attack are analyzed and a detailed report is then generated. The simulated Phishing attack provides statistics on user behavior, measures security awareness among employees, identifies data leakage, assesses Data Loss Prevention (DLP) programs and tests the incident response program. When the test is over, a personalized email is sent to each individual, informing him or her about his or her responses and what should be the ideal action. In addition, an e-learning module further educates the user on security awareness. Thus anti Phishing software plays a vital role in an organization's anti-Phishing strategy by increasing an employee's awareness to Phishing. Read More About: Phishing Protection, Simulated Phishing Attack, Protection From Phishing