Legal cybersecurity expert Sharon Nelson recently shared the warning of another sharp rise in phishing scams targeting smartphone users.
The still-growing threat of smartphone phishing attacks now represent 75% of all phishing sites according, according to Sharon Nelson, president of Sensei Enterprises, in a recent post on their Ride the Lightning blog, which summarizes recent news about the recent surge from ZDNet. Sharon discusses several reasons: We take a faster pace on our smartphones, we can’t preview or hover over link sources on them, the screens are smaller, we have more chat applications downloaded on them — Our SMS messages alone are starting to receive as many phishing attacks as our email inboxes. Essential steps users and businesses can take are outlined by ZDNet:
Users can help to protect themselves from mobile-phishing attacks by being cautious about what links they follow. If an email alert or text message claims to come from a particular brand, rather than clicking the link in the email, it’s often wiser to go to the actual website of the brand in your browser and login to your account from there.
For businesses, it can be helpful to roll out security protections to smartphones used by employees to help detect and prevent threats. The use of multi-factor authentication should also be encouraged, because it provides an additional barrier to compromised usernames and passwords being exploited.
Anyone who suspects that one of their accounts has fallen victim to a phishing attack should immediately change their password.
Find more in the full post on Sharon Nelson’s ‘Ride the Lightning’ blog, where you can also signup to receive similar updates straight to your inbox directly. We also saw this alert in the NCBA CPM’s weekly ICYMI newsletter (subscribe here).
The resources listed below cover more on phishing attacks, law firm employee training, MFA, and more cybersecurity essentials.
RELATED RESOURCES:
Smartphone Phishing Attacks Escalate, Bedeviling Law Firms [Guest Post] (Mass LOMAP Blog, 2021)
Cybersecurity Quick Tip: Avoiding Wire Fraud – What Law Firms Need to Know (Mass LOMAP Blog, 2021)
Why Lawyers Need to Use Multi-Factor Authentication [Guest Post] (Mass LOMAP Blog, 2021)
Shadow IT: A Serious Threat to Law Firms [Guest Post] Mass LOMAP Blog, 2021)
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