It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for criminals.
Cybercriminals know that everyone is busy around the holidays, and many IT professionals are on vacation. In the hopes that people aren’t paying full attention, this is the prime season for phishing email attacks. Pegasus is on-call 24/7, 365 days/year, and our automated filters, like Advanced Cloud Email Security, use the latest in AI protection to help keep you safe. Still, human firewalls will always be an important layer of defense.
Here are some tips to avoid becoming the next victim:
Red Flags:
- You’ve won something or will get something for free
- Click for important details about a purchase or delivery
- Your bank account or credit card is overdrawn
- You’re asked to pay in gift cards, cryptocurrency, or a payment app
- Unsolicited donation requests for a natural disaster or family crisis
- Urgent action is required to prevent bad things from happening
- Directives to disregard standard procedures and act fast
- Message sent at an unusual time
- Attachments that you didn’t expect
- Threats/promises of revealing pictures or sensitive information
Tips:
- Don’t take calls from unknown numbers
- Don’t click on links in emails or texts
- If you receive an automated message, hang up / close the email and manually type the address into your browser or call the company to confirm the notice is real
- CallerID and From email addresses can easily be forged today- fraudulent messages don’t require typos. Call the person to validate the content real if an unusual message comes from a supervisor or family member.
Happy Holidays from all of us at Pegasus!
