Phishing, smishing alert for staff working at home

WITH millions of employees forced to work from their homes, information communication technology specialists have been working hard to combat the increased threat of cybercrime.

Director of sub-Saharan Africa for CM.com, James Bayhack, said criminals were working overtime to steal companies’ data by targeting vulnerable employees working from home.

He said having employees working from home, without the normal firewalls and cybersecurity in place, meant companies and individuals were at greater risk of having their data compromised.

“IT teams are tasked with the daunting challenge of managing employees’ connectivity during the Covid-19 crisis to ensure productivity and minimal disruption to business.

“At the same time, there has been a sharp spike in the number of phishing and smishing attacks since the outbreak began.

“Every day, Gmail blocks more than 100 million phishing emails. In the first week of April, Google reported 18 million daily malware and phishing emails related to Covid-19.

“This was in addition to more than 240 million Covid-19 daily spam messages.”

Phishing is still one of the most effective methods that attackers use to compromise accounts and gain access to company data and resources.

“Most online users are aware of phishing emails, which often encourage you to log on to what seems to be an online banking portal or other credit facility.”

He said cybercriminals had also been employing the growing cybertrend called smishing.

“In this case, the sender’s identity for SMS messages can be tweaked to look like a message from a bank or other recognised institution, but in fact it comes from a person,” he said.