Disaster Recovery in Boston: How to Identify SPAM Messages

In the past decade, phishing attacks have become an even bigger threat to business, costing organizations billions of dollars each year globally. Studies show that nearly half of all computer and internet users get at least one phishing email per day. The best defense in something like this is to have a good offense. Knowledge is power and training your staff is one of the best ways to prevent an attack. Anti-virus monitoring in Boston can only do so much, which is why it is important to have a disaster recovery service and comprehensive data back-up in place to protect your essential data.

Blocking malicious emails before they reach employees is one way to reduce instances of attack or access through phishing attempts. Businesses should work with a service like Synivate that can offer email threat analysis to reveal attacks beyond the basic DMARC or Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance standards. This can protect the company from damage that might be done through attacks made by individuals spoofing their respected name or brand. So not only do you need to educate your staff about what might be trying to "get in" to the company server, but also stay on top of phishing attacks that use your good name and information.

Professional Remote Monitoring

The best way to protect your business and prevent vulnerabilities is to work with Synivate in the Greater Boston area for professional remote monitoring services. While phishing emails will always make their way through even the best line of cybersecurity defenses, the more you can do to educate staff on how to recognize or identify SPAM messages, the better. Phishing emails are surprisingly effective. More than 95 percent of all individuals have difficulty spotting out a sophisticated phishing email from other messages. Education through our highly trained, experienced, and knowledgeable staff can be beneficial, but you need to do more.

Professional remote monitoring services and disaster recovery service go hand in hand to protect your essential data and provide your company with comprehensive data back-up in the event of a hack or other potentially damaging situation. Anti-virus monitoring in Boston can only go so far if the detrimental access comes from human error in opening or downloading dangerous emails that can compromise the safety and security of your network. Synivate can provide your employees with the knowledge, information, and tools that they need to navigate company email safely and can provide your business with monitoring and backup services that are needed to keep you up and running even after a disaster.

Common Phishing Tactics

Some of the most common ways that SPAM messages are able to get through to your employees and then access your system is by spoofing the display name of the email. They will use well-known and trusted brand names or website addresses that have something in common with your business. For example, if you work in the foodservice industry, spoofing an email from Sysco or US Foods who supply a majority of the ingredients to restaurants and cafes across the country would make sense. You might be more apt to click on a name that you recognize and trust that the "click here" message would be safe. Banks, software companies, credit card processing services, office supplies, anti-virus apps, and other professional business tools are also regularly used for commercial phishing attempts.

Other things to check for to identify SPAM messages include:

• spelling errors and poor grammar - most professional companies will at least run a mailer through spell-check or Grammarly before sending to customers
• avoid clicking on any addresses - instead, go to the main website for your bank or client access website in a separate browser window to check for messages
• never give information or credentials - professional businesses are aware of these scams and will not ask for username, password, address, or other details via email
• a sense of urgency - ignore messages that are pushing you to act quickly, words like "urgent" or that claim suspensions, cancellations or unauthorized logins to other accounts should be suspect
• never open attachments - unless the attachment is coming from a co-worker and you are expecting to receive the attachment, never open it; be careful with co-worker emails as well, making sure to verify that the address is not being spoofed and that everything else looks legitimate before opening anything

Outsource Professional Remote Monitoring

Even the best education program for staff and anti-virus monitoring in Boston and the surrounding area is not 100 percent accurate all the time. It pays to outsource professional remote monitoring of your entire system to ensure security for your essential data. It is also important to have a disaster recovery service in place, which includes comprehensive data back-up and redundancy to help you get back on track right away after a disaster. To get a FREE ESTIMATE for our professional services, contact Synivate at 617-517-0704.