At its core, phishing is just someone pretending to be something they’re not. Typically acting as a trusted company, coworker, or system to trick you into giving up credentials, money, or access.

Phishing is one of those things that keeps working because people move fast and don’t stop to think. It's a challenge for every organization, department, and person as the methods used by attackers continues to evolve.

Here are three things to always check before clicking anything:

1. The sender isn’t what it claims to be.

   
   

   

   
   

   Don’t trust the display name! Look at the actual email address or domain.

   
   

   Attackers love using slight misspellings or lookalike domains (like “micros0ft” instead of “microsoft”). If it’s coming from outside your org but pretending to be internal, that’s already a red flag.

   
   

2. The message is trying to rush or scare you

   
   

   

   
   

   Anything pushing urgency should cause you to pause. For example:

   
   

   1. “your account will be locked”

   2. “immediate action required"

   3. "payment overdue"

   
   

   Real companies don’t operate like that. If it feels like pressure, slow down, evaluate, and verify through a separate channel if you are not sure.

   
   

3. Links and attachments don’t line up

Hover over links before clicking. If the URL looks off, shortened, or unrelated to the message, don’t touch it. Same with attachments.(especially unexpected ones!) If you weren’t expecting a file, assume it’s malicious until proven otherwise.

Wrap-Up

Phishing works when people trust too quickly. Take 10 seconds, verify the source, and you’ll avoid 95% of this garbage.

If you sense anything is suspicious, taking the time to review can prevent security incidents before they happen! When in doubt, contact your IT to have them review with you.

Phishing methods is also much more than just an e-mail. Click here to learn more about the different types of phishing.

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