Phishing scams often look like legitimate requests for information, but there are lots of ways you can spot a phishing attack. Suspicious sender addresses, unsolicited attachments and spelling and grammar mistakes are all signs that a request for information is not legitimate.

There’s a common practice of sending direct mail disguised as courts summons or other official documentation, to make a reply more likely. Many phishing emails can take basically the same approach, only in digital form. That is, they might use all-caps subject lines (e.g., “URGENT:”) to make it seem like action is required. It isn’t. […]

Phishing is regularly associated with tactics such as a scammer telling someone they’ve won a prize, but it can also take the form of attempted extortion. Be wary of any email threatening to expose something about you unless you quickly submit payment. Simply delete it instead of engaging at all.

Some of the best-disguised phishing attempts speak to you like a person, use one or two things to personalize the message, and imitate company logos to a tee. But they might be missing a final sign of legitimacy – a real-life address on the email signature. Official business and customer care comms won’t be shy […]

Create individual accounts that grant only the access and permissions required by each user. When you need to grant daily use accounts administrative permissions, only do so temporarily. This precaution decreases the impact of bad choices, such as clicking on phishing emails or visiting malicious websites.

It can be easy to simply allow a download to go ahead on your device, especially if you think the source appears reputable. Be wary of any files that you download and question their authenticity before confirming the download. This is particularly pertinent for email attachments — where the sender may look legit, but could […]