3 Tips to Deter A Cyber Attack

Malicious cyber activity is increasingly common. It begs the question, “Why can’t people just be good people?” We may never have an answer to that question, but we do have answers on how you can protect yourself from their attempt at harm.

What is a cyber-attack?

For many of us, this is a new concept. One that is somewhat difficult to understand. Cyber-attacks come in various forms. Have you ever received a suspicious email from a friend’s email address? This most likely means that their email has been hacked and access to their private documents have been exposed. Opening a malicious email attachment can allow access to your computer’s camera.

How can you deter a cyber-attack?

Think before acting. We know your first instinct upon arriving at work is to knock out those emails cluttering up your inbox. Before you race through viewing all of them, do the following.

1. Check the “from” email address.  Anyone can go to an email provider and open a new email address under your name. But not just anyone can access your domain name. Domain meaning what comes after the @ symbol. Ex: @abc.com. If you recognize the name but not the email address, then it should be deleted and then deleted from your deleted folder!
2.  Look at the level of professionalism. If you can’t confirm legitimacy from the email address, then check for misspellings and professional appearance. The internet makes a lot of information publicly available like logos. We have seen emails that appear to have come from Microsoft Office. They even include the Microsoft logo. The email address was questionable, AND the email body included several misspellings. Plus, there was no email signature. Just a first name as the sign off. Do you think a major corporation like Microsoft would not require a professional email signature with proper titles and contact info?
3. Consider appropriate methods of doing business.In your own work, would you send a time sensitive or confidential document by email without first notifying the receiver that you will be doing so? No. If you receive an email, from a friend or foe, with an urgent and confidential document or link that needs to be viewed, then please consider whether or not it would make logical sense for this person to ask this of you with no forewarning. Because it never will.