YOUR company NEEDS YOU!!

YOU are the key to preventing your company from being a victim of cybercrime.

Every member of staff is.

You can have the best firewalls, email spam filters, and all the other digital protection in place.  But if a human clicks on a link in an email, which leads to a malicious website, or allows some malware to be downloaded onto your computers, you won’t be protected by these things.

So it’s VITAL that you, and all your staff, are aware of the risks and what to avoid.

You need to be aware of how cybercriminals cleverly try to manipulate you (it’s called social engineering) to do what they want.

They use social methods, such as creating a sense of fear or urgency, to get you to do something you might not normally fall for.

For example:

Click on the link to reset your account details, because your account has been compromised, and you need to take this step to secure it.

This appeals to both fear (you don’t want your account to be compromised) and urgency (you want to sort it out as soon as possible).  The fear can lead to panic, which can mean that you might click on something without giving it as much thought as you usually would.  And the sense of urgency, wanting to sort it out as soon as possible, compounds this effect – you don’t feel you can afford to take the time to stop and think – you just need to click and sort it straight away!

Or another example:

A compromising video with you in will be circulated to your contacts list.

Yikes!  What on earth could they be talking about?  Where did they get that from?  What is it?  Better click and see what it is… NO!!!! That is exactly what the scammer wants you to do.  But you can see how the social engineering is achieved.

And it could be a myriad of variations on these themes….  the “video” (or photo) could be of someone else; someone you know… it could be that your TV licence payment has bounced and you need to re-set up your direct debit instruction…it could be an amazing opportunity to get rich quick (if only you click on this link)…etc…the list goes on.

YOU are the defence – the link in the chain – the one that stops this from going ahead and happening.

For help and advice with anything to do with cyber security, call us on 0114 287 0510 or email us on info@datamills.co.uk