A successful phishing attack can cost your organization thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands. And unfortunately, you’re likely more vulnerable than you realize.
In 2020, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received nearly 2,170 complaints a day, on average, which is a 69% increase from 2019.1 Of the cybercrimes committed that year, phishing and related scams were by far the most common.1 That’s no surprise when you consider how sophisticated modern phishing schemes can be.
Many of the most dangerous phishing attacks are not shots-in-the-dark. Cybercriminals often take the time to learn your organizational charts, vendor names and/or banking partners and then use that knowledge against you. A spoof email that appears to be from your CEO can easily fool an unsuspecting employee into transferring funds into a fraudulent account or divulging sensitive information. That particular phishing scam is known as CEO impersonation, and it’s just one of many potential methods of attack.
A single mistake from a single employee can cost you significant money and time. If you want to fully protect yourself from phishing threats, you have to make sure you have no weak links. That means making sure you have a security stack that protects you on multiple levels and against all varieties of email fraud.
When choosing an email security solution, there are six particular characteristics you’ll want to look for. The anti-phishing software you deploy should have:
1. Relentless Effectiveness
Your phishing software should be able to see emails like humans do but catch the things that humans can’t. To be truly and consistently effective, your email security software must be alert 24/7/365 and aware of every kind of threat from brand spoofing and spear-phishing to whaling. In other words, your anti-phishing software should be capable of detecting and blocking the most sophisticated new schemes as well as the persistently mundane challenges of problems like spam.
2. Unique Intelligence
Artificial intelligence isn’t enough. In fact, in the best email security software, it will be just the beginning. You should look for a solution that expands on AI algorithms with a deep understanding of how email works and the ability to see how email is changing. That way it can continuously learn and will be prepared to stop the newest threats, including zero-day attacks.
3. Unprecedented Vision
Today’s most dangerous phishing schemes work because they are profoundly difficult for a human to detect. That’s why you need a phishing software solution that literally sees everything. It has to know how brands are supposed to look — logos, colors, design standards, etc. — so it can analyze emails down to the pixel and identify imposters by the slimmest of clues. On top of that, it has to be able to see the invisible parts of an email that only a machine can detect. And, it should even know your users—understanding their writing styles and preferences to differentiate hackers and imposters from your employees. Only then can you be sure you’re fully protected.
4. Active Guidance
It’s one thing for your phishing solution to be capable of detecting every threat that comes your way, it’s a whole other thing for it to work for real people in real situations, every time. It can’t just be up to your IT department to manage email security. You need every employee playing an active role, which is why the ideal phishing software solution will provide every user with gentle but persistent guidance, alerting your employees to anything that seems amiss. Clear information delivered in an unmissable but unobtrusive way gives your employees the ability to stop phishing attacks before they happen while training them on what to look for in the future.
5. Seamless Integration
An email security solution should work whenever, wherever and however your employees check their email. To ensure this, an ideal software solution must be cloud-based and platform-agnostic. It needs to work on desktop and mobile, and it should be effortless to install and operate. Most of all, it should work behind the scenes and never jeopardize emails from being delivered or slow down your employees’ days.
6. Boundless Curiosity
The problems of email aren’t solved, but they are solvable. The key is to recognize that threats are continually evolving and that no one can predict all of the potential challenges ahead. The best email security services understand this and will provide a product that is always learning and not only adapts on its own but is backed by engineers who stay close to the problems.
An ideal phishing software solution has to do a lot. Fortunately, there is one that has all six characteristics listed above and then some: INKY.
INKY is the best solution in the fight against phishing threats. On the backend, it’s driven by artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision while, on the frontend, it’s incredibly simple to use. With INKY, clear and concise banner alerts will notify your employees if there’s anything potentially fraudulent in an email. Four million lines of code power those banners, but the experience is as seamless as it is effective.
Don’t allow your organization to become a victim of the thousands of email phishing scams perpetrated every month. Give yourself the protection of INKY. Try your personalized demo now.
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INKY® is the most effective hero in the war against phishing. An award-winning cloud-based email security solution, INKY® prevents the most complex phishing threats from disrupting or even immobilizing your company’s day-to-day business operations. Using computer vision, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, INKY® is the smartest investment you can make in the security of your organization. INKY® is a proud winner of the NYCx Cybersecurity Moonshot Challenge and a finalist in the 2020 RSAC Innovation Sandbox Competition. Learn more about INKY® or request an online demonstration today.
1Source: https://ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2020_IC3Report.pdf