How to Protect Against Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks are attempts to steal information through emails, website links, text messages, or other forms of electronic communication. Attackers often masquerade as official communication, attempting to trick victims into compromising their security.

Understanding what these attacks look like and how they work can help you spot phishing attempts, as well as give you some information about what to do if your website has been compromised to host a phishing trap.

Common Types of Attacks

  • Email phishing: Attackers often use several techniques to forge an email header so it appears to come from a trusted source. Links within the message may redirect to an illegitimate website or ask a user to download malicious software.
  • URL substitution: Attackers may substitute false URLs designed to look like authentic company URLs. A false web address often includes a barely-noticeable difference in the URL itself, e.g https://example.com could be https://exmaple.com.

  • Ad phishing: Attackers using this method will attempt to duplicate a legitimate website advertisement. If the ad is clicked, the user will be redirected to an unofficial clone of a legitimate website, and be vulnerable to information theft.

Prevention Tips

Here are some ways you can prevent successful phishing attacks from happening.

Educate your employees

Businesses should train their employees to be wary of any communication requesting personal or financial information. If any suspicious requests are found, they should be reported immediately.

Caution around email links

Ensure your employees and customers understand that care should be taken when clicking on email links. An emphasis on the avoidance of clicking on any suspicious email links is highly recommended. It’s also a great idea to disable HTML within internal email messages.

Frequently change passwords

If an attacker breaks into one of your accounts the consequences can be serious. A password management policy that enforces the regular changing of passwords will help to prevent attackers from accessing your accounts.

Keep your software updated

Software updates frequently address vulnerabilities such as outdated or breached code. When you keep your software up to date, you reduce the likelihood of being targeted in an attack.

Use our SiteSafe Protection service

If your website falls victim to an attack, it may be flagged as ‘suspicious’ by Google and removed from all search results, making it difficult for your customers and prospective customers to find you. Our SiteSafe Protection service allows you to secure your website against malicious attacks in the form of viruses and malware.

These precautionary measures will undoubtedly help safeguard against domain phishing attacks. Make sure to stay protected and keep your website safe!

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