4 Battle-Tested Tips To “FITE” Spam Attacks

You’ve got all points covered with fail-safe anti-malware and spam protection… Now you can kick back, breathe a sigh of relief and rest assured you’ll be spared any kind of devastating cyber attack, right?

Wrong.

No matter how “bomb-proof” your devices and software, you’ll always have weak points wherever people interact with your network. Mistakes happen and even the smartest among us can be deceived. Cyber thugs know this and constantly barrage your company’s email server with ever more devious ways to get through.

Their attacks are constant, and getting worse…

Alarmed to see an email that appears to be an overdue notice from the IRS, Robert in accounting clicks… Barbara, your receptionist gets an email from what appears to be a social media connection asking her to click … Bill in engineering just opened an infected file in Dropbox that he thought was a document from a colleague… Before you can blink, company files are locked and a ransom note appears…

Scammers constantly devise new and more devious ways to get people to click infected links. With credible looking website logos, URLs and messaging, emails can appear perfectly legitimate to the unwary. That’s why email is still a top weapon of choice for cybercriminals.

What’s particularly troubling is that the malware it delivers via booby-trapped emails can infect not only the victim’s machine, but your entire network as well. And once a network is infected, the virus can be very hard to detect.

So what can you do? “FITE” back! Here’s how:

Filter. Most people can identify a malicious email. But you don’t want your team wasting countless hours deleting intrusive messages. And while a spam filter can help mitigate the problem, none are 100% effective.

In fact, performance varies widely among spam filters. Look for the highest degree of accuracy in identifying spam, with the least number of false positives. Select a filter that’s also easy to use and won’t bog down your system.

Identify. Watch for tip-offs that an email may be spam if 1) you don’t know the sender, 2) you’re asked for a password, money or account information, or 3) you detect anything fishy about the sender, subject line or body of the email.

Other things to watch for include email from someone you don’t know, subject line and body content that don’t match, deliberate misspellings (such as “docum*nt”), an offer that seems too good to be true (It probably is…) and warnings about a computer virus.

Think before taking action. If you don’t know the sender, don’t even open the email. By opening a spam email, you are signaling to the sender that your email address is active. More spam is sure to follow.

If the email looks at all suspicious, DO NOT CLICK any links or download any documents. If it’s obviously spam, delete it or mark it as spam. If you’re not sure, verify with the sender by separate email or phone call before clicking or downloading anything.

Keep your email address private and read privacy statements before revealing it. Use an alias when providing your email address to commercial sites to keep your personal address from being shared.

Educate. Don’t let untrained users into your network who are not aware of the dangers of email spam. Train your team in best practices. Remember, they’ll benefit as well. After all, who wants to lose an important personal document or family photo due to an ill-advised click?

As spammers become ever more sophisticated, the threat goes beyond mere annoyance. Your company’s data and financial security are at risk. Now is the time to update your spam protection practices. It’s far less costly than dealing with the aftermath of an attack.

When was the last time your spam protection program had a checkup?

Through the end of May, we will provide a FREE Spam Protection Checkup to the first seven companies in the [YOUR CITY] area that request it. Visit [YOUR COMPANY WEB PAGE] or contact us today at or [YOUR COMPANY email ADDRESS FOR CUSTOMER INQUIRIES] to reserve yours while you still can. DO IT NOW… before a ransom demand — or worse — becomes a problem.

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