Be Aware of the Dangers of Spam

You certainly don’t need anyone to tell you that it’s very dangerous to give out information to just anyone that contacts your organization. This is imperative to keep in mind, especially considering how the majority of threats these days can be sent through email. You’ll probably come across situations where you need to consider whether or not to click on attachments, as you could potentially put your business at risk.

Spam is an effective medium to push threats like ransomware, viruses, and other significant problems for your business. Spam is an efficient way to spread threats due to how easy it is to send numerous messages to all types of users. This increases the chances of users downloading the attachment, along with all of its malevolent contents.

Ransomware is most comfortable on business workstations that have downloaded infected attachments. For example: you could receive a message from a "prospective employee" who wants to send your business a resume. If your HR department doesn’t know what signs to be on the look out for, they could unwittingly download the attachment and infect their systems with all types of malware.

Even worse, a spam filter might not be able to highlight these phishing messages as dangerous because they are designed specifically to not be detected. You should be on the look out for messages that claim to be shipping information, receipts, resumes/CVs, or other important information that you would normally keep an eye out for. Cybercriminals know that you require this information, so they can take advantage of it to scam you.

The most effective way to prevent your business from suffering due to spam and phishing attacks is to educate your employees and apply solutions designed to keep spam from hitting the inbox. For the former, you can host seminars on how to increase awareness of online threats. You should be educating your employees not to open attachments from unknown senders; They should only open these attachments after it has been deemed secure enough.

For spam and phishing protection, Macro Systems can supply the required support. We can help you integrate an enterprise-level spam blocker and content filter to keep everything but the most dangerous messages from entering your network in the first place. To learn more, reach out to us at 703-359-9211.