{"id":212107,"date":"2017-11-22T08:56:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T06:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=212107"},"modified":"2017-11-22T09:04:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T07:04:05","slug":"protect-your-business-against-email-borne-cyberattacks-this-black-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/industry-news\/212107\/protect-your-business-against-email-borne-cyberattacks-this-black-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Protect your business against email borne cyberattacks this Black Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black Friday (24 November 2017) is marked with a flurry of online activity, which\u00a0cybercriminals see as an opportunity to target victims using\u00a0spear-phishing<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and malicious attachments harbouring\u00a0ransomware<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Heino Gevers, Customer Experience Manager at\u00a0Mimecast<\/strong><\/a>, explains the sudden peak of year-end cybercrime:<\/p>\n

\u201cCybercriminals can use Black Friday to sneak into business systems unnoticed or activate malware, via unsuspecting consumers within an organisation. Employees will be hitting the digital malls on business devices and over business networks. They\u2019ll click on dozens of marketing emails advertising \u2018not-to-be-missed\u2019 specials, increasing the likelihood of a successful phishing attack or an accidental malware download.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A recent study by\u00a0Mimecast\u00a0and Vanson Bourne shows that 58% of organisations in South Africa saw an increase in untargeted phishing over the last year, while 53% noticed an increase in spear-phishing (malicious links targeted at an individual or organisation).<\/p>\n

Additionally, a third (32%) of organisations had sensitive data sent via email, by an employee, in response to a phishing attack. And Black Friday is peak phishing season, as marketing emails \u2013 legitimate and otherwise \u2013 flood inboxes.<\/p>\n

Here are four simple rules to make you more secure and more importantly more\u00a0cyber-resilient<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

1. Employee Training is Your First Line of Defence<\/h3>\n

As hacking methods advance, a cursory look at an email address or website URL is simply not enough to ensure authenticity.<\/p>\n

Cleverly designed duplicate websites and often-unnoticed website redirects could see employees inadvertently handing over access to your organisation\u2019s data or systems.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s essential that businesses train employees on email-safety best practices and how to approach suspicious emails with a particularly critical eye.<\/p>\n

2. A Multi-Layered Security Approach is Key<\/h3>\n

According to Gevers, \u201cOne of the best ways to keep businesses secure is layering of security. Start off with good firewalls, which should always be your first line of defence against a breach of your network, then add extra layers to email and the websites and apps your business uses. This layered approach makes the overall experience more secure for both vendor and customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Reliable data recovery is your Best Bargaining Chip<\/h3>\n

Ransomware is fast becoming the most common and damaging form of cyberattack.<\/p>\n

But your attackers will have little bargaining power if they are unable to separate you from your data permanently.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why a secure and reliable archive<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is your best chance of tipping the scales in your favour.<\/p>\n

An always-available archive allows you to restore your data should disaster strike.<\/p>\n

4. Stay online no matter what<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s not only the data or monetary loss that you need to consider, downtime could cost you productivity and potentially customers and revenue.<\/p>\n

Be prepared to quickly and seamlessly switch to an available service, should downtime due to a cyber-attack occur.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0continuity<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0solution allows access to everyday tools, like Microsoft Outlook or G-Suite by Google Cloud, in the event of an outage.<\/p>\n

If PCs or the broader network are affected, it\u2019s useful to be able to access email through the web or mobile continuity apps.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve covered these bases, your chances of falling victim to an email based attack this Black Friday will decrease dramatically, as will the impact of any attack that manages to slip past your tight protocols.<\/p>\n

As world leaders in email security, archiving and continuity,\u00a0Mimecast\u00a0is perfectly positioned to help get you through this period safely.<\/p>\n

Find out more about our Cyber Resilience offerings at\u00a0www.mimecast.co.za<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are four simple rules to make you more secure and more importantly more cyber-resilient this Black Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":212113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[12575,26,11528,11526],"class_list":["post-212107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-black-friday-2017","tag-headline","tag-mimecast","tag-mimecast-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212123,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212107\/revisions\/212123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}