IT services firms in Los Angeles can help you keep a handle on the slippery sort of cyber-attacks known as “phishing.” Essentially, this is where hackers use a variety of techniques to trick you into giving them sensitive information. This information can be used for purposes of corporate espionage, to steal without your realizing it, or to install malicious software onto your devices which can be used in a ransomware sense. It all depends on the cybercriminal.

Identifying Phishing Scams

Working with an IT consultant in Los Angeles can help you determine just what phishing scams look like. Oftentimes, they’re going to come in the form of an email, and if you’re savvy, you can immediately tell when that email is spurious. Look for these features in a fraudulent email:

• Social media info – encourage hygiene among personnel
• Obvious grammatical errors, strange typos all over
• Urgency

Social Media Info – Encourage Hygiene Among Personnel

IT services firms in Los Angeles will advise that you inform staff of phishing threats and give them a list of actions for social media hygiene among corporate profiles. If you get a lot of emails that don’t have direct employee info, but plenty of information that could have been found on their Facebook page, that’s a red flag for a phishing scam.

Obvious Grammatical Errors, Strange Typos All Over

Emails that are sent from another country are composed with poor English, generally. Also, they’ll have idiosyncratic typos those who learned to type in English-speaking countries are less likely to have. As well, such emails may be sent during the middle of the night or some time that isn’t even close to conventional operating hours.

Urgency

An IT consultant in Los Angeles is likely to advise you design protocols which eliminate urgency from email financial transactions. Many phishing scams try to trick people into letting them steal data by couching their requests in urgent terms. When policies conflict, you know immediately something’s wrong.

Don’t Feed the Phishers

IT services firms in Los Angeles like Advanced Networks can help you avoid phishing scams built around common tactics like false urgency and social media exploitation, as well as identify emails through their errors and other collateral features. Contact us for more information on phishing scams and how to avoid them.