In addition to circumventing your company’s spam filters, Internet bad guys are targeting your employees directly through their smartphones with “smishing” attacks that are hard to stop.
The scam starts with a text message that convinces the employee to send an email to the scammers. Once contact is established, the victim gets caught up in the scam.
In addition to shopping fraud and “IRS” demands for tax payments, these types of attacks are also used for identity theft, to hijack bank accounts, or pressure employees into giving out sensitive personal or company information.
A video made by USA Today shows how the smishing scam works, and research suggests cybercriminals are getting better results using this method. One reason is that phone users tend to place a higher degree of trust in text messages than other forms of communication and so they don’t think twice before they tap. Without realizing it, they’ve been roped into the scam.
Employees need to take a closer look at their text messages and check for social engineering red flags that should make them pause before leaping blindly into these scams. KnowBe4, Inc. is distributing a complimentary job aid that can be sent to employees to help them deal with this and other kinds of attacks.
Download your copy of Social Engineering Red Flags
Need help reducing the risks posed by scammers? DataLink’s security experts have you covered. Contact us today: 410.729.0440 or sales@DataLinkTech.com.
