Phishing scams are where the scammer sends you an email or a text or calls you, claiming to be from the government, the local council, the phone company or your Internet provider, a major retailer etc.  aiming to get your confidential information such as login and password details or credit card details etc.

These scams are extremely common with many people receiving numerous such emails or messages each day. Some organisations get hundreds of these scam messages every day and the Internet providers block billions of these messages every day.

For organisations, blocking these messages takes time and resources, but if the criminals get the data they seek, the damage can be long lasting.

A survey of large organisations suggested the cost of such activity averages around $2 million for a 10,000 person company and is attributed as follows:-

• Business impact through loss of proprietary information (41%)
• Loss of productivity (35%)
• Other wider effects (16%)
• Damage to reputation (8%)

Prevention is generally easier and cheaper than disaster recovery activities so make sure your organisation has the right systems protection in place and train staff on how to recognise phishing threats.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.