While looking for tik tok specific things, CNET has an article Protect yourself from phishing scams so you don’t fall prey to the next Twitter hacker which talks about Spear Phishing. Hopefully next week, we’ll be talking on the Security box about the different types of phishing. This article highlights what happened with twitter, and lays the groundwork on what you, the average consumer, can do to protect yourself.
Look at the “from” field. Is the person or business’s name spelled correctly, and does the email address actually match the name of the sender? Or are
there a bunch of random characters in the email address instead?While we’re at it, does the email address seem close, but a little off? E.g. Microsft.net, or Microsoft.co. Hover your mouse over any links in the email to see the true URLs they will send you to. Do they look legitimate? Remember not to click! Check the greeting. Does the sender address you by name? “Customer” or “Sir” would be red flags. Read the email closely. Is it generally free from spelling errors or odd grammar? Think about the tone of the message. Is it overly urgent or trying to get you to do something you normally wouldn’t?
There’s more to the article that might help you. If the common tactics don’t help you, look at the address, even if it is spelled more correctly than other messages you could easily spot. We’ll be talking about this more hopefully next week. If not next week, on a future show.
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Fishing attacks will always be a big issue.
We say don’t click, but emails can get so convincing at times.
The only way to handle this is to never click even legit mail links and do it via the company website when something comes up.
Its quite hard to distinguish friend from foe and when we do the bad guys change again, its a continuing struggle.