A method deployed in the ongoing cyberattacks on Australian businesses and individual users is phishing. While we’re no stranger to phishing emails, with thousands of them flooding our inbox, we may not have the eagle eye of a security expert to verify email links. Here are some expert tips:
- Hover your mouse over any link in an email to show the full URL before clicking. Not sure about a URL? Then it’s safe to say it’s suspicious.
- Scammers like to use familiar company and domain names, or mix legitimate links with malicious ones, to add credibility. (Legitimate links often appear in an email’s “legal” or “privacy” section.)
- To confirm if a link is valid, inspect the domain name by using online registers such as WHOIS to determine the domain’s owner.
Our security experts will return with more Cybertips. Chat to us if you have questions or comments. We’d like to hear from our readers.
