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EDITOR’S QUESTION
ANTON JACOBSZ,
MD OF NETWORKS
UNLIMITED AFRICA
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P
hishing is the fraudulent practice of
sending e-mails, supposedly from a
trustworthy source, to entice individuals
to reveal personal and account information
such as usernames, passwords and credit card
numbers in an ultimate attempt to steal or
extort money. From an IT perspective, you
can combat business e-mail fraud attacks
by establishing a DMARC record on your
company domain, so that messages spoofing
your real domain do not get delivered; and
you can make sure that your e-mail provider
can enable two-factor authentication on your
e-mail accounts to prevent an attacker from
hacking into your accounts and using them to
send fraudulent messages.
Additionally, it’s advisable to adopt a
comprehensive anti-phishing programme
that empowers your employees to assist
in fighting business e-mail fraud scams.
This introduction of humans as part of the
security layer is a fundamentally different
approach to cybersecurity from relying on IT
support and technology applications only.
Mental fatigue can set in, when people are
exposed to such high volumes of messaging,
meaning that they are more vulnerable to
phishing attacks simply because of the high
volume of mails to process. Anti-phishing
solutions are available which are designed to
train people to think differently about their
e-mails, particularly unsolicited messages. For
example, a comprehensive human phishing
defence platform that is offered by Networks
Solutions Africa involves the following steps:
• Enabling your employees to recognise
a phish threat through realistic
phishing simulations
• Giving them tools to report it through a
simple click
• Having your company’s IT technicians
then quickly respond to the threat
• Having technicians worldwide continue
with ongoing research to gather
www.intelligentcio.com
“
THIS
INTRODUCTION OF
HUMANS AS PART
OF THE SECURITY
LAYER IS A
FUNDAMENTALLY
DIFFERENT
APPROACH TO
CYBERSECURITY.
information about potential threats in
the future
At the heart of this solutions set is the
recognition that an organisation’s
employees need to be empowered to
heighten their awareness of the thinking
and methodology that cyberattackers use,
so that they are able to recognise a phishing
e-mail when it lands in their mailbox.
As e-mail-related threats remain one of
South Africa’s biggest security concerns,
we know that we will be able to continue
offering a solution that sits at the
intersection of human intelligence and
technology – reminding us that technology
alone isn’t the answer to phishing attacks.
INTELLIGENTCIO
29