With data breaches abound and computer abilities going stratospheric you would think hackers must be busy trying to get into your accounts. The truth is, they are… but why go to all that effort and cost when they can simply ask YOU for your details and passwords?

You may laugh and use the good old phrase “it’ll never happen to me – I’m on the ball with these spam and phishing emails.”

Well you would be wrong. Only the other day a colleague in cyber security told how a secretary had wired £200k based on an email from the MD relating to a late account payment. It does happen!

We have been around longer than the WWW and have seen how it has evolved over the years. We freely admit that even we cannot always, and instantly, detect a phishing email. Some are easier to detect than others.

This time of year (winter and Christmas), as well as everyone ordering online with pandemic concerns means we are online far more than usual. Our adversaries are way ahead of us here. They know how we think, what we buy and what we might be doing over the next few months.

Expect to see untold number of emails saying your bank account will be closed. You have unread emails about to be deleted. Someone accessed your iTunes account. We have been watching you, etc ad infinitum.

All good solutions come in small packages so here at RedKiteIT are our top tips to saving you from untold misery, as well as saving you money:

• The World is not ending – do not panic. Take your time to review the concern fully – ask a friend, etc.
  
• NEVER click any links within an email – if you are worried go to your internet browser and log into your account using your Password Manager with that insanely large and randomly generated password (see our previous article: ‘The Password is Dead.‘)
  
• As a PA, financial director, or managing director, create some policies to cover email requests for payments so people CAN ring at odd hours to confirm, or certain processes can wait until Monday morning, etc. If your MD has not provided a policy, as a junior member of staff, err on the side of caution – no one was ever sacked for being careful!
  
• If it sounds too good – it invariably is.

RedKiteIT can provide consultancy and training in all things IT. Just drop us a line for advice and assistance.