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Phishing

Phishing is a type of cyber crime that uses email to trick users into handing over personal information, such as login credentials and credit card numbers. It can be a very effective method of gaining access to sensitive data, but is also a highly dangerous threat.

Phishers often use slight variations of official company correspondence to deceive victims into handing over their personal details. This can include using generic salutations, grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.

The most common form of phishing is via email. Hackers send these emails to anyone with an email address they can get their hands on, so it’s important to have email protection in place.

Another way to avoid phishing attacks is by making sure all your email addresses and contacts are registered with the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) standard. This will prevent phishers from sending emails to your personal account that are designed to look official.

Other ways to avoid phishing are by installing firewalls and by checking for popups. However, even with these safeguards, phishing can still occur, so a robust cybersecurity system should be in place to stop payloads and malware before they reach your network.

The National Computer Security Center (NCSC) encourages organisations to set up DMARC in order to protect themselves and their contacts from phishing. This can help prevent a huge amount of damage from occurring by protecting the reputation of your organisation and your customers, partners and suppliers.