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5 Steps to Avoid Phishing Attacks

5/5/2017

Dr. Patrick Mulvehill

I have 5 steps that you can take to avoid falling victim to a malicious phishing attack.

Consider the Source

Since the characters that create these attacks prey on the fact that you trust anything that comes to your inbox from a friend or colleague, the first rule of thumb is to be suspicious of every email regardless of who it comes from. No one is immune from these type of attacks, so if you treat every message with a little suspicion, it will go a long way to protecting yourself from these attacks.

Examine the Subject

Sometimes a quick examination of the subject of an email will tell you what you need to know. That is why I always encourage my users to include a well formed subject with each email. In this case, a legitimate Google Share would have come with the name of the document being shared and the words “- Invitation to view” or “- Invitation to collaborate” attached to the end. This was the first indication to me that something was not right. Here is an invitation I received recently to view a Google Doc. The subject was “Counselor's Corner - Invitation to view.”

Google Phishing Attack 2

Take Nothing at Face Value

Even if the creators of the attack had duplicated the subject and contains of a Google share invitation exactly, the next thing you want to remember is never take anything at face value. If you have even the slightest inclination that something is off, compose a new email to the sender and verify that they sent the invitation. One of the other things that was a little off about this recent attack was that the email was sent to “hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”.....who is that? That is enough of a flag to generate some additional questions.

Don't Give Away the Bank

If you do click a link and find yourself on a page asking for access to your personal information or data, feel free to say, “NO!” Unless you are 100% confident that the person or application requesting access has a legitimate need to access the information, don’t give it to them. If you are unsure, then ask you friendly IT professional for advice before giving permission to access your accounts.

Don't let the Criminals Win

Finally, and most important, don’t be afraid to continue sharing and collaborating using Google Suite. Honestly, that is the biggest win these criminals could hope to achieve with this attack. Don’t let them win!

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