Scam Proof your Business
Scams and scammers become more sophisticated every day. No surprises there. They rely on keeping a jump ahead of people. As businesses step up their investment in new technology and media platforms, scammers find new ways to worm their way in.
Social Engineering
Manyscams fall under the umbrella term ‘social engineering’. These techniques aim to gain people’s trust and con them into letting their guard down to leave themselves (or potentially your business) open to fraud. You might have the most high tech security system in the world but it’s useless if a human is conned into propping the door open.
Social engineering approaches want you to act without thinking, to click the link, open the attachment, to be helpful and friendly and open the door. Social engineering manipulates people into giving away valuable information or unwittingly giving a scammer system access. It is often the first opening that exposes a business to a security breach. These techniques have emerged as security risks. Brief your team to minimise the risk.
Phishing;
the email from the bank or a supplier asking us to click this link or open that attachment or reply with our account details.
Smishing;
short for ‘SMS phishing’, it uses text message technology to fool you. It can trick a
user into downloading malware such as a virus or Trojan horse, onto his or her mobile phone or other device. If the device is set up to synch with your office system, you can see the problem. SMiShers can use text messages to obtain financial data from users for identity theft or fraud.
Scareware;
this involves convincing the user that their computer has been hacked or infected
with malware or they have inadvertently made an illegal download. Predictably
the problem can be fixed by clicking on the enclosed link. And then of course,
the user’s computer really has been infected with malware.
