Are you aware or will you be hooked?
Lately, the ponds have enlarged and the number of fishermen have increased. By now you should have known what I am talking about - Phishing.
image courtesy of National CyberSecurity Centre
My question is one, are you aware or will you take the bait?
We are eight days into October and yes it is the Cybersecurity Awareness month and that is why I am here - to make sure you do not get hooked.
Phishing is a form of social engineering where cybercriminals use deception and impersonation to lure people into revealing sensitive information or installing malicious programs.
Most Phishing attacks happen via Emails. However, with the advancement in technology, it is worth noting other avenues of Phishing such as SMishing - SMS phishing, Vishing - voice phishing and others.
Here are some of the things that you should check in an Email to help you spot phishers.
Does the sender’s e-mail address match the company it’s coming from? Look for little misspellings like pavpal.com or anazon.com.
Does the email contain an offer that’s too good to be true?
Is the greeting ambiguous or very generic?
Is it a strange or abrupt business request?
Does the email include language that’s urgent, alarming, or threatening?
Is the email poorly crafted, writing riddled with misspellings and bad grammar?
Does it include requests to send personal information?
If you answered Yes to any of the above, Kudos, you spotted a phishing email. What to do?
If such an email is delivered into your work Email inbox, DO NOT CLICK but notify your IT admin asap!
If it was delivered into your personal email inbox, again DO NOT click any link - not even the unsubscribe button - or open any attachment. DELETE!
To avoid getting such Emails in your inbox, you can block the sender. This is how to block them on the various platforms
Below are some examples of phishing emails. As you can tell, they all contain some of the elements we discussed above. 
This information was brought to you in partnership with the National CyberSecurity Alliance