{"id":5894,"date":"2018-07-30T11:06:58","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T15:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/?p=5894"},"modified":"2024-08-30T11:12:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T15:12:00","slug":"protect-your-business-against-spear-phishing-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/protect-your-business-against-spear-phishing-emails\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Protect Your Business Against Spear-Phishing Emails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5896\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/email-3249062_1280.png\" alt=\"protect your business against spear-phishing emails\" width=\"1280\" height=\"716\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/email-3249062_1280.png 1280w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/email-3249062_1280-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/email-3249062_1280-1024x573.png 1024w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/email-3249062_1280-1080x604.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/>Cyberattacks and resulting data breaches often begin with a spear-phishing email. Spear phishing differs from regular email phishing in its use of extensive research to target a specific audience, which allows the spear phisher to pose as a familiar and trusted entity in its email to a mark. To protect your business against spear-phishing emails, you need to know what the attackers are looking for and how they try to access it. Spear phishers seek a company&#8217;s valuable information\u2014such as credentials providing access to customer lists, trade secrets, and confidential employee information\u2014and some of their methods include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Directing email recipients to fake (but authentic-looking) websites that ask for information like account numbers, and passwords or other credentials.<\/li>\n<li>Inducing recipients to click on links or attachments that download malware onto the recipient&#8217;s computer. The malware often allows the phisher to steal passwords and sensitive data by, for example, tracking keystrokes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The IRS offers the following\u00a0<a title=\"tips\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/uac\/newsroom\/dont-take-the-bait-step-1-avoid-spear-phishing-emails\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tips<\/a>\u00a0to protect against spear phishing:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Educate all employees about phishing in general and spear phishing in particular.<\/li>\n<li>Use strong, unique passwords with a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters. Also remember to use different passwords for each account.<\/li>\n<li>Never take an email from a familiar source at face value, especially if it asks you to open a link or attachment, or includes a threat about a dire consequence that will result if you fail to take action.<\/li>\n<li>If an email contains a link, hover your cursor over the link to see the web address (URL) destination. If it&#8217;s not a URL you recognize, or if it&#8217;s an abbreviated URL, don&#8217;t open it.<\/li>\n<li>Poor grammar and odd wording are warning signs of a spear-phishing email.<\/li>\n<li>Consider calling the sender to confirm the authenticity of an email you&#8217;re unsure of, but don&#8217;t use the phone number in the email.<\/li>\n<li>Use security software that updates automatically to help defend against malware, viruses, and known phishing sites.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>GTM clients can rest easy knowing their\u00a0data is secure.\u00a0Because we firmly believe in protecting our clients and partners and their confidential information, GTM voluntarily undergoes a rigorous examination and assessment process for <a href=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/why-gtm\/soc-1-compliant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SOC-1 compliance<\/a>, an internationally-recognized standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)\u00a0that is recognized as a mark of service quality.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Source: &#8220;Protect Your Business Against Spear-Phishing Emails&#8221; by Zywave<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cyberattacks and resulting data breaches often begin with a spear-phishing email. See how to protect your business against spear-phishing emails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[150,104],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consulting-services","tag-cybercrime","tag-data-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5894"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7117,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5894\/revisions\/7117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5894"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=5894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}