{"id":76079,"date":"2017-07-25T10:20:50","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T17:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=76079"},"modified":"2022-03-16T00:21:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T07:21:19","slug":"top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Ten Ways to Protect Yourself Against Phishing Attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"email<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to miss the increasing frequency of phishing attacks in the news. Earlier this year, a major phishing attack targeted Google Docs users<\/a>, and attempted to compromise at least one million Google Docs accounts. Experts say the \u201cphish\u201d was convincing and sophisticated, and even people who thought they would never be fooled by a phishing attack were caught in its net.<\/p>\n

What Is Phishing?<\/h2>\n

Phishing attacks use seemingly trustworthy but malicious emails and websites to obtain your personal account or banking information. The attacks are cunning and highly effective because they often appear to come from an organization or business you actually use. The scam comes into play by tricking you into visiting a website you believe belongs to the trustworthy organization, but in fact is under the control of the phisher attempting to extract your private information.<\/p>\n

Phishing attacks are once again in the news due to a handful of high profile ransomware<\/a> incidents. Ransomware invades a user\u2019s computer, encrypts their data files, and demands payment to decrypt the files. Ransomware most often makes its way onto a user\u2019s computer through a phishing exploit, which gives the ransomware access to the user\u2019s computer.<\/p>\n

The best strategy against phishing is to scrutinize every email and message you receive and never to get caught. Easier said than done\u2014even smart people sometimes fall victim to a phishing attack. To minimize the damage in an event of a phishing attack, backing up your data is the best ultimate defense and should be part of your anti-phishing and overall anti-malware strategy.<\/p>\n

How Do You Recognize a Phishing Attack?<\/h2>\n

A phishing attacker may send an email seemingly from a reputable credit card company or financial institution that requests account information, often suggesting that there is a problem with your account. When users respond with the requested information, attackers can use it to gain access to the accounts.<\/p>\n

The image below is a mockup of how a phishing attempt might appear. In this example, courtesy of Wikipedia<\/a>, the bank is fictional, but in a real attempt the sender would use an actual bank, perhaps even the bank where the targeted victim does business. The sender is attempting to trick the recipient into revealing confidential information by getting the victim to visit the phisher\u2019s website. Note the misspelling of the words \u201creceived\u201d and \u201cdiscrepancy\u201d as “recieved” and “discrepency.” Misspellings sometimes are indications of a phishing attack. Also note that although the URL of the bank’s webpage appears to be legitimate, the hyperlink would actually take you to the phisher’s webpage, which would be altogether different from the URL displayed in the message.<\/p>\n

\"Phishing<\/a><\/div>\n

Top Ten Ways to Protect Against Phishing Attacks<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Always think twice when presented with a link in any kind of email or message before you click on it. Ask yourself whether the sender would ask you to do what they are requesting. Most banks and reputable service providers won\u2019t ask you to reveal your account information or password via email. If in doubt, don\u2019t use the link in the message and instead open a new webpage and go directly to the known website of the organization. Sign in to the site in the normal manner to verify that the request is legitimate.<\/li>\n
  2. A good precaution is to always hover over a link before clicking on it and observe the status line in your browser to verify that the link in the text and the destination link are in fact the same.<\/li>\n
  3. Phishers are clever, and they\u2019re getting better all the time, and you might be fooled by a simple ruse to make you think the link is one you recognize. Links can have hard-to-detect misspellings that would result in visiting a site very different than what you expected.<\/li>\n
  4. Be wary even of emails and message from people you know. It\u2019s very easy to spoof an email so it appears to come from someone you know, or to create a URL that appears to be legitimate, but isn\u2019t.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    For example, let\u2019s say that you work for roughmedia.com and you get an email from Chuck in accounting (chuck@roughrnedia.com) that has an attachment for you, perhaps a company form you need to fill out. You likely wouldn\u2019t notice in the sender address that the phisher has replaced the \u201cm\u201d in media with an \u201cr\u201d and an \u201cn\u201d that look very much like an \u201cm.\u201d You think it\u2019s good old Chuck in finance and it\u2019s actually someone \u201cphishing\u201d for you to open the attachment and infect your computer. This type of attack is known as \u201cspear phishing\u201d because it\u2019s targeted at a specific individual and is using social engineering\u2014specifically familiarity with the sender\u2014as part of the scheme to fool you into trusting the attachment. This technique is by far the most successful on the internet today. (This example is based on Gimlet Media’s “Reply All” Podcast episode, “What Kind of Idiot Gets Phished?”)<\/div>\n
      \n
    1. Use anti-malware software, but don\u2019t rely on it to catch all attacks. Phishers change their approach often to keep ahead of the software attack detectors.<\/li>\n
    2. If you are asked to enter any valuable information, only do so if you\u2019re on a secure connection. Look for the \u201chttps\u201d prefix before the site URL (or a padlock symbol), indicating the site is employing SSL. If there is no \u201cs\u201d after \u201chttp\u201d or padlock symbol, it\u2019s best not to enter any confidential information.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n

      \"https<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

        \n
      1. Avoid logging in to online banks and similar services via public Wi-Fi networks. Criminals can compromise open networks with man in the middle<\/a> attacks that capture your information or spoof website addresses over the connection and redirect you to a fake page they control.<\/li>\n
      2. Email, instant messaging, and gaming social channels<\/a> are all possible vehicles to deliver phishing attacks, so be vigilant!<\/li>\n
      3. Lay the foundation for a good defense by choosing reputable tech vendors and service providers that respect your privacy and take steps to protect your data. At Backblaze, we have full time security teams constantly looking for ways to improve our security<\/a>.<\/li>\n
      4. When it is available, always take advantage of multi-factor verification to protect your accounts. The standard categories used for authentication are 1) something you know (e.g. your username and password), 2) something you are (e.g. your fingerprint or retina pattern), and 3) something you have (e.g. an authenticator app on your smartphone). An account that allows only a single factor for authentication is more susceptible to hacking than one that supports multiple factors. Backblaze supports multi-factor authentication<\/a> to protect customer accounts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        It’s important to also be a good internet citizen and help reduce phishing and other malware attacks by notifying the organization being impersonated in the phishing attempt or by forwarding suspicious messages to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov<\/a>. Some email clients and services, such as Microsoft Outlook<\/a> and Google Gmail<\/a>, give you the ability to easily report suspicious emails. Phishing emails misrepresenting Apple can be reported to reportphishing@apple.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

        Backing Up Your Data to Protect Against Phishing and Other Malware<\/h2>\n

        The best way to avoid becoming a victim is to be vigilant against suspicious messages and emails, but also to assume that no matter what you do, it is very possible that your system will be compromised. Even the most sophisticated and tech-savvy of us can be ensnared if we are tired, in a rush, or just unfamiliar with the latest methods hackers are using. Remember that hackers are working full time on ways to fool us, so it\u2019s very difficult to keep ahead of them.<\/p>\n

        The best defense is to make sure that any data<\/a> that could be compromised by hackers\u2014basically all of the data that is reachable via your computer\u2014is not your only copy. You do that by maintaining an active and reliable backup strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

        Files that are backed up to the cloud, such as with Backblaze<\/a>, are not vulnerable to attacks on your local computer in the way that local files, attached drives, network drives, or sync services like Dropbox that have local directories on your computer are.<\/p>\n

        In the event that your computer is compromised and your files are lost or encrypted, you can recover your files<\/a> if you have a cloud backup that is beyond the reach of attacks on your computer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        It\u2019s hard to miss the increasing frequency of phishing attacks in the news. Earlier this year, a major phishing attack targeted Google Docs users, and attempted to compromise at least one million Google Docs accounts. Experts say the \u201cphish\u201d was convincing and sophisticated, and even people who thought they would never be fooled by a… Continue reading Top Ten Ways to Protect Yourself Against Phishing Attacks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":76080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[475],"tags":[471,351,384],"class_list":["post-76079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ransomware","tag-businessbackup","tag-ransomware","tag-security","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Does Phishing Mean and How Do You Protect Against It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Even the most sophisticated and tech-savvy of us can be ensnared by a phishing attack, especially when we are tired or in a rush.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Does Phishing Mean and How Do You Protect Against It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even the most sophisticated and tech-savvy of us can be ensnared by a phishing attack, especially when we are tired or in a rush.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-25T17:20:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-16T07:21:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/phishing-computer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roderick Bauer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@rodbauer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@backblaze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roderick Bauer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Does Phishing Mean and How Do You Protect Against It","description":"Even the most sophisticated and tech-savvy of us can be ensnared by a phishing attack, especially when we are tired or in a rush.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Does Phishing Mean and How Do You Protect Against It","og_description":"Even the most sophisticated and tech-savvy of us can be ensnared by a phishing attack, especially when we are tired or in a rush.","og_url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/","og_site_name":"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze","article_published_time":"2017-07-25T17:20:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-16T07:21:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1440,"height":820,"url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/phishing-computer.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Roderick Bauer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@rodbauer","twitter_site":"@backblaze","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Roderick Bauer","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/"},"author":{"name":"Roderick Bauer","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ab76c78d649d9b862757dfa400d3cb8d"},"headline":"Top Ten Ways to Protect Yourself Against Phishing Attacks","datePublished":"2017-07-25T17:20:50+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-16T07:21:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/"},"wordCount":1415,"commentCount":10,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/phishing-computer.jpg","keywords":["BusinessBackup","Ransomware","Security"],"articleSection":["Ransomware"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/","name":"What Does Phishing Mean and How Do You Protect Against It","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/phishing-computer.jpg","datePublished":"2017-07-25T17:20:50+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-16T07:21:19+00:00","description":"Even the most sophisticated and tech-savvy of us can be ensnared by a phishing attack, especially when we are tired or in a rush.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/phishing-computer.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/phishing-computer.jpg","width":1440,"height":820},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-protect-phishing-attacks\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Top Ten Ways to Protect Yourself Against Phishing Attacks"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/","name":"Backblaze Cloud Solutions Blog","description":"Cloud Storage & Cloud Backup","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Backblaze","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Backblaze"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/x.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Backblaze","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Backblaze"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ab76c78d649d9b862757dfa400d3cb8d","name":"Roderick Bauer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0f9ff246abfe724e25d1c41983affb76e691cd3577d8b4d0d7607ee3ab6cbe2?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0f9ff246abfe724e25d1c41983affb76e691cd3577d8b4d0d7607ee3ab6cbe2?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0f9ff246abfe724e25d1c41983affb76e691cd3577d8b4d0d7607ee3ab6cbe2?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Roderick Bauer"},"description":"Roderick has held marketing, engineering, and product management positions with Adobe, Microsoft, Autodesk, and several startups. He's consulted to Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Stanford University, Dell, the Pentagon, and the White House. He was a Ford-Mozilla Fellow in Media and Democracy with Common Cause in Washington, D.C., where he advocated for a free, open, and accessible internet for all, reducing media consolidation, and transparency in politics and the media.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/rodbauer"],"url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/author\/roderick\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/phishing-computer.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}