Phish Out of Water — Remote Workers Email Security

The last few weeks have been a big change for everyone.  Many people are working from home, and some of those people have children at home with them.  Right now, my kids are wandering the house looking for breakfast and prepping for Zoom meetings with their teachers.  While I have seen many acts of kindness and compassion during this time, I have also seen attackers take advantage of distracted workers who are trying to balance home and work life.

We have seen an increase in phishing emails that are shockingly good.  They are playing on the fears of people working from home.  For example, a receptionist who gets an email from the CEO asking to buy gift cards for everyone as a morale booster, might think this sounds great.  In the past they would walk down to the CEO’s office and probably ask a question or two.  But in today’s climate, without the easy access to the CEO, they might just buy the gift cards and send the information back via email, never realizing this was a phishing scam.

In this time of change, communication via Teams, Slack, etc. is essential to keep the ability to “pop” into someone’s office to ask a question.  It is also imperative to implement or continue security awareness training — provide people the tools to be able to spot malicious emails and routinely phish your employees.  If someone fails, that is a good thing.  You can help that person before a hacker gets them to click on a link.  Make it mandatory that they make time to take the trainings. Phishing and training together can really improve your security.

People are the weakest link in the security chain. Thrive’s Anti-Phishing and Security Awareness Training ensures your employees understand the mechanisms of spam, phishing, spear phishing, malware, ransomware and social engineering.

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