Following the recent news regarding the appearance of an Argos text scam which tricks customers through a fake refund message, Stephen Burke, Founder & CEO at Cyber Risk Aware offers the following comment.
Stephen Burke, Founder & CEO at Cyber Risk Aware:
“There has been a huge rise in smishing as a route to phishing and this proves it. This new technique means that people are not used to being targeted in this way and think because it is a phone rather than a computer that they are somehow more protected. This is untrue, phones are computers and cyber criminals want to gain access to the device if they can as well as their data, bank accounts and money.
The issue here reinforces that people will blindly click on links if the they believe it has come from a trusted resource. People are trusting, and criminals take advantage of this by preying on their emotions and having massive success, mainly due to people not querying messages. It’s important that they stop and think before clicking.
To overcome this, companies must help employees raise awareness of this ever increasing threat so they can measure how susceptible their staff are to falling victim to these attacks. This then enables them to pinpoint who needs security awareness training and as a result, employees can become a highly effective network of human sensors who will protect themselves both in and out of the workplace.”
