3 Ways You Can Prevent Phishing

Published On: August 22nd, 2023|Categories: Blog|Tags: , |1.9 min read|

A cyberattack against your dealership is most likely to start with a phishing email. IRONSCALES reported 82% of data breaches involved phishing. The effects of an attack can leave your customers information vulnerable and cause them to lose trust in you, or enable financial fraud, costing tens, if not hundreds, of thousands.

Be Wary of Impersonation

Often times, phishing emails are disguised as someone important in your dealership or that you do business with regularly. These phishy emails will usually come from a vendor’s address. It could be an invoice, a document that needs to be signed, or updates on package deliveries. All these emails will have links or attachments they want you to open. And almost always there will be pressure to respond quickly. Here are some do’s and don’ts:

  1. Be wary of unsolicited e-mails, especially those with attachments or links.
  2. Don’t send anyone personal information or update financial account numbers over email.
  3. Do check the email address and name of the sender, and reach out to that individual to confirm it was actually them, if the request seems suspicious or unusual.
  4. Do call the sender to verify if something seems urgent.

Keep all software and security tools up to date, and use modern e-mail protection

Regularly installing updates to all software on all devices is crucial. These updates usually address vulnerabilities that have been found and fixed over time. If you never update, you’ll be less protected and have a higher risk for a cyberattack. In addition, use the best e-mail filter you can. This is a critical security tool. They are not foolproof, but they can massively reduce the amount of phishing that makes it to your employees.

Best Practice Tip: Have your IT team set up software updates to install automatically.

Provide employees with education on phishing emails

Preventing phishing attacks starts with you and every employee in your dealership. Individuals need to stay informed and vigilant in order to protect against these types of attacks. Make sure your dealership has a procedure in place for how to report suspicious activity, and most importantly, that the policy is shared with everyone in your dealership.

Stay alert and always report anything you find suspicious. Or in the words of Alastor Moody… always remember, “constant vigilance!”

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