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EDITOR’S QUESTION
SELINA BIEBER,
REGIONAL DIRECTOR
FOR TURKEY AND MENA
AT GODADDY EMEA
T
he impacts of phishing emails are
a pervasive security risk you face
as a small business owner or a solo
entrepreneur. Phishing scams are attempts
by hackers to get users to hand over sensitive
information, like passwords and credit card
information. Here are a few good practices
to help beat the scammers:
Recognise the tell-tale signs
Some phishing emails are obvious because
they are badly written and formatted that no
real bank, as an example, would send them
out. Others are more carefully put together
and could fool the average user who just takes
a casual look at the format and the content.
Either way, there are some tell-tale signs that
can indicate that an email is not legit:
• Generic email greeting, such as ‘Dear
customer’. Your bank has your full name
on record.
“
CHECK THE
WEBSITE URL
ADDRESS BAR TO
SEE IT HAS AN SSL
CERTIFICATE.
www.intelligentcio.com
• A link of a URL that you do not recognise
or looks suspicious – check the link source
before you click on it, often by hovering
over the link.
• Unexpected attachments.
• Grammar and spelling mistakes.
• Urgent calls to action – ‘log in within
the next 48 hours, or your account will
be closed’, ‘your account has been
breached’, or ‘to receive your refund, you
must login in the next 24 hours’.
Educate your team
Educate your team about the dangers of
phishing emails and the signs that an email
might be a scam. Consider introducing
policies that forbid them from opening
attachments they are not expecting or
clicking on a link in an email they do not
recognise. You may also consider making
it company policy not to use the same
password for different websites. Ask
employees to alert you when they see emails
that seem random or suspicious.
Enable two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication is about using
something you know (your password)
and something you have (a one-time PIN
received on your phone, your thumbprint,
or a token) to sign into an online service.
Even if you accidentally give your banking
login and password to a scammer, they
will not be able to do much with it if they
don’t have access to your phone. It can be
///////////////////
an essential extra layer of security for your
sensitive data.
Install anti-virus and anti-
malware software
There are a lot of scams and malware
variants on the Internet and installing anti-
virus or anti-malware software can help to
keep your devices and data safer. When
it comes to phishing, up-to-date security
software can help by catching the virus or
malware and quarantining it, should a user
click on a phishing email. Also, check with your
service provider to see if they offer security
monitoring solutions to help block suspicious
emails before they enter your inbox.
Get SSL for your website
If the email passes all of the steps above, and
you click a link to visit a website, there are two
more checks to do – check to make sure you
are on the company’s actual website and
check the website URL address bar to see it
has an SSL certificate. With South Africans
growing more savvy about the importance
of online security and more concerned about
potential cybercrime, no small business can
overlook the importance of installing an SSL
Certificate for their website. The reassuring
presence of the familiar padlock symbol in the
URL bar as a sign of SSL security, protecting
the transmission of personal information,
shows online visitors and shoppers that you
take security seriously and that your website
has additional security protections in place. n
INTELLIGENTCIO
27