What is Phishing?
Phishing is a type of cyber-attack where attackers use deceptive emails, messages, or websites to trick individuals by trying to obtain sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, passwords, and other sensitive personal information. Phishing scams are extremely common and can have significant impacts on individuals and organizations. A phishing scam has the potential to lead to financial losses, data breaches, and reputational damage. In some cases, the stellar reputation an organization had prior to the phishing scams can never be regained again.
Types of Phishing
There are 3 of the most common phishing scams we see targeting senior living communities:
Email Phishing: Deceptive emails posing as trustworthy sources to deceive recipients into sharing sensitive information.
Spear Phishing: Customized phishing attacks aimed at specific individuals or organizations, often using personal information to appear legitimate.
Voice & SMS Phishing: Expanding on phishing tactics through phone calls (vishing) and text messages (smishing) to raise awareness.
Common Red Flags for Phishing:
There are many red flags when it comes to phishing emails, and here are a few you’ll need to watch out for:
- Generic greetings or a lack of personalization: Generic greetings like “Dear Customer” instead of addressing you by name
- Urgent request emails that require immediate action
- Requests containing threatening negative consequences for non-compliance
- Emails with suspicious or mismatched URLs: URLs may mimic legitimate ones with slight variations
- Poor spelling and grammar
Legitimate organizations typically do not ask for sensitive information without the proper verification. If you doubt the legitimacy of an email or message, contact your organization’s IT administrator immediately to report it. Another option is to contact the organization reaching to you through their official channels, such as contacting them through their website’s chat form or reaching out to them by phone. Hovering over links to preview the actual URL before clicking it may prevent you from falling victim to phishing scams. Also, going directly to a website instead of clicking on a provided link, can also help your community enhance its security measures.
IT Support & Training
Proactively protect your community by educating your staff on how to identify and report phishing emails. Be sure your community has internal processes in place to protect your staff and residents from potential phishing scams. Provide all employees with the necessary contact details to report phishing incidents to relevant company personnel. Emphasize how important it is to have employees contact your IT department so they can properly handle and mitigate the phishing incident.
Encourage employees to stay vigilant and informed about ever-changing cyberthreats through ongoing cybersecurity training initiatives. Emphasize the need for continuous training to keep employees informed and vigilant against evolving phishing threats. Highlight the ongoing IT support available to ensure the robustness of the company’s cybersecurity measures.
Cybersecurity Best Practices:
Keep your Senior Living Community Secure by applying these 3 Cybersecurity Best Practices:
Update: Regularly update and patch software to protect against known vulnerabilities.
Report: Report any suspicious emails to your organization’s IT or security team promptly.
Isolate: Keep your personal & professional accounts separate to minimize risk.
In conclusion, phishing attacks are on the rise and continue to pose significant threats for senior living communities and their residents. By staying alert and educating yourself on how to identify phishing scams, you can better protect yourself and your organization. Keeping yourself and your community informed and being cautious when interacting with emails, messages, and websites which are unfamiliar to you is essential.
If you want to protect your senior living community against phishing scams, you must educate your staff of the warning signs and risks of phishing scams. Through our Managed Security Services Provider partnership, we offer End-User Security Awareness Training and Testing, where we conduct a simulated phishing attack on your organization to determine your community’s level of training when it comes to cybersecurity’s best practices. This Baseline Campaign allows us to create and deliver a library of cybersecurity and compliance awareness training customized for your staff’s needs on how to recognize phishing campaigns.
Let us educate your community on how to not fall victim to phishing scams by reaching out to us today.
