<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none;" alt="" src="https://px.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=4052188&amp;fmt=gif">

protect your credit union phishingIt seems like every day I hear about another credit union that has been targeted by phishing attacks. The problem is widespread, but unfortunately there's not an easy way to prevent phishing attacks. 

Phishing is a technique where hackers pretend to be a legitimate, trustworthy email sender to trick you into giving them your personal information. Spear phishing takes it a step further by targeting people at a company with messages customized to the recipient.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to find out if your credit union is being targeted by a spear phishing attack.

    • Do you know the sender, and is the email coming from the email address you’d expect them to use? An email from a co-worker that is sent from a Gmail account is always a red flag.
    • Are you expecting a message from the sender?
    • Is the content of the email a giveaway? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
    • Are there grammar or spelling mistakes? Hackers have improved on this recently, but bad spelling and grammar are still a telltale sign that everything isn’t what it seems.

These aren’t surefire ways to know if you’re being targeted by a spear phishing attack, but if an email has more than one of these red flags, it’s a good idea to proceed with caution. Click here to read the full article and learn more about how to protect your credit union from cyber attacks.

You may also like

Credit union expert offers tips to protect against DDoS attacks
29 January, 2013

In 2012, financial institutions saw a significant increase in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. The vice pre...

Armed Robber Gunned Down by Off-Duty Cop at Credit Union
19 September, 2013

An off-duty police officer shot and killed an armed robber at a Virginia Beach credit union on Saturday morning, accordi...

Expert: DDoS Attacks at Credit Unions Can Mask Wire Fraud
Expert: DDoS Attacks at Credit Unions Can Mask Wire Fraud
29 April, 2013

Denial of service attacks are often launched as a distraction to cover up wire fraud, a FIS executive told credit union ...