Secure Email Handling

Phishing attacks by email are nowadays more sophisticated than they have ever been. So, in this lesson, you will learn how to identify those emails, so you and your organization are secure from any risks and bad consequences. Let us learn the Red Flags. The first thing to look at when you get an email is the sender’s address. Is it familiar? Is there a spelling mistake? Is the address have a suspicious domain? Turning a critical eye on the sender’s address can help you identify the first sign of a phishing email. Then, look at the subject, scammers do not want you to analyze the email and inspect it well before reacting. Hence, they use fear tactics. When you see an email with the subject being “Urgent!” , or “Action Required!”, or “Open Immediately!”, or “Install Now!”, then you should treat those emails with large suspicion. The use of generic greeting and lack of personalization is another flag. Phishing emails often use generic greetings like "Dear Customer" instead of addressing you by name. Legitimate organizations typically personalize their emails with your name or username.   Phishing emails often contain spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, or awkward language. Legitimate organizations typically have professional communication standards. Be cautious of links in emails, especially if they come from unfamiliar or unexpected sources. Hover over links (without clicking) to check if the URL matches the claimed destination or seems suspicious. The scammer or scammers also try to appear more legitimate by ending the phishing email with an authority title like “Customer Support”, “IT Support”, and so on. This is another example of phishing email. As you can see there is an attachment in the email. Always be cautious of the attachments in emails especially if they are coming from unknown addresses. The rule of thumb will be to not download or open any attachments that you have not requested. Most of these malicious attachments are in the executable format. However, it's important to note that malicious content can be present in various file types, including Word documents, PowerPoints, Excel files, and PDFs.