Top phishing scams to look out for in 2023

Access to your company’s information is valuable and as a result, cybercriminals are relentless in their attempts to steal your data and sell it for profit. Did you know that cyberattacks increase 50% year-over-year with a company falling victim every 39 seconds? According...

Access to your company’s information is valuable and as a result, cybercriminals are relentless in their attempts to steal your data and sell it for profit. Did you know that cyberattacks increase 50% year-over-year with a company falling victim every 39 seconds? According to the Ponemon Institute and IBM, the average total cost of a data breach was $4.24 million in 2021.

Cyber scams continue to evolve and in order to protect yourself and your company, you should be aware of how to identify these scams in the first place. 

Here’s a list of some of the most common phishing scams you might encounter over the next year.

Voice Phishing

Typical spam calls are easy to detect as you won’t recognize the caller. But voice phishing is more elaborate as cybercriminals will masquerade as trusted family members, friends, or even company officials. The call will seem personal as they try to gain your trust. Be wary of any scammer pushing you to give out valuable information and never visit a site or URL they provide over the phone.

In addition to voice phishing, cybercriminals have also gone mobile and will sometimes target victims through text messages known as smishing. Read those texts thoroughly and if something feels suspicious, it’s best to just delete the message and block the number. 

Social Media Phishing

Posting personal information online across social media platforms is very common. Still, when it comes to your company’s data, you’ll want to be much more careful about what’s published and accessible.  

A new scam called spear phishing is a targeted attack by cybercriminals who have gathered information from publicly available sites like social media. Often impersonating executives from within the company, employees fall victim to well-crafted and personalized messages that can contain malware to download. 

Always be alert to any unusual requests and aware of suspicious activity on social media profiles asking you to click on links or open pictures.

Business Email Phishing 

Probably the most common phishing trend that will continue into 2023 and beyond is compromised emails. More than 90% of cyberattacks infiltrate an organization through email.   Sometimes cybercriminals will try to gain access to an executive’s account in order to send email requests to junior employees to infiltrate company finances. Once an employee does what the email asks, funds are wired to criminal accounts, and the businesses are defrauded.

Luckily, because of the frequency of these attacks, spotting malicious emails is getting easier. Scan the greeting, from the email address and the body of the email, looking for noticeable grammar mistakes and spelling errors. Always double-check the hyperlinks included in the email before clicking anything including PDF attachments. When in doubt, it’s best to report these emails to IT and security.

Phishing scams are a reality in our digital world and do not appear to be going away anytime soon. 

Arming your company with IT processes, policies, reputable security software and employee education will help keep your organization safe. Our services at Quercus IT include standardized processes, policies, an advanced cybersecurity training platform, best-in-breed security software and 24 x 7 managed threat detection and response. 

We take cybersecurity protection to the next level, contact us to learn more.