Enforcing basic levels of security seems to be something small European businesses have mastered, especially those that use the Internet as the main medium to conduct their business. Spyware and viruses are the first terms that come to mind when someone asks for talks about Internet security but the fact of the matter is that there are many more threats that can compromise the valuable data small businesses in Europe rely on.
The recent security survey conducted by Symantec Corp. has revealed some interesting information about the level of security European small businesses put in place and how their data may become compromised by e-mail spam tactics known as phishing.
Spammers and fraudsters seem to be moving away from high tech tools such as viruses or spyware and have begun to focus on methods that require less work (as far as technology) and are more cunning in order to get valuable information from small business owners and use it against them. E-mail phishing is nothing more than an e-mail that appears to be official and has a set of instructions that will ultimately lead to a data leak.
In order to detect phishing scams one needs to take a hard look at the e-mail address that was used to send the message, the language that is being used and the links such e-mail has. As a European small business owner you should never assume that an e-mail is legitimate only because it appears to come from an established business. Copying the images and appearance of a site and applying that “theme” to an e-mail is not hard to do, if a small business owner assumes that an evil message is legitimate just because it looks like the website of a trusted financial institution or business partner to risk being taken is very high.
Phishing e-mails will often contain hyperlinks that will take the reader from the message to a website, paying attention to the URL of the page where you are being redirected can help you identify potential scam. The Symantec Corp. has revealed that small business owners may not be as vulnerable to viruses as they are to phishing scams, especially when to phishing e-mail targets an employee in charge of the accounts payable or receivable (known as minnowing) or when targets the small business owner and people working in important positions (also known as whaling)
In order to combat such problem it is recommended that European small businesses train their staff in order to make them fully aware of the threats and security breaches that can be caused by a simple phishing e-mail and how to recognize a fraudulent message when it arrives at their inbox.
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