Working from home requires actively working together with your colleagues against cyber threats to protect your IT infrastructure and data. For example, phishing e-mails can be recognised as follows: The message is seeking to create a feeling of urgency and elicit a quick reaction in the reader. It may tell you should perform a certain action now in order to...

  • avoid negative consequences such as access to your e-mail account being blocked
  • receive a benefit such as a financial reward
  • get you to view something exciting or forbidden

 

The majority of these messages contain at least two of the following typical phishing features:

  • The sender’s name is different from the e-mail address the message was sent from
  • The sender purports to be an employee of a legitimate company but the e-mail address has no connection to this company
  • The message doesn’t feature any branding, such as the absence of a company logo or e-mail signature
  • The message refers to departments or services that don’t exist
  • Unusual words, atypical syntax or phrasing is used, and the message contains basic spelling or grammar errors
  • Links to registration sites are included
  • The message includes an attachment with a generic name

 

Of course, these tips don’t just apply to your e-mail account, but also to social media communications channels such as WhatsApp, LinkedIn and XING.

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