Escaping The Theft Of €150,000

We often talk about the importance of taking measures to protect your business’s email inbox, but is the proof in the pudding? Absolutely!

The rundown

One of Astaris’ customers, a large gin botanical importer, had agreed on an order from their supplier in Serbia, at a price of €150,000.Â

Right before the transaction was due to be made, they received an email interpreting the supplier (the name on the email was correct and appeared at a glance to be legitimate), stating that the company’s bank details had been changed and to send the money to the new account.

Luckily, they questioned this email, after looking at the email in much more detail, although the name on the email matched the supplier, the actual email address was sent from a completely random email and this is something that could very easily of been missed.

The company then reached out to the supplier who confirmed they had not recently opened a new account and instructed them to send the funds to the original account they had on record.Â

If it wasn’t for the quick thinking of the email recipient, they would have lost the money instantly. Too close for comfort, right?

Prevention rather than cure?

Once transactions like this have been sent to organized crime groups, they can very rarely be recovered. This can have detrimental effects on a business and could be impossible to recover from.

So what do you do when there’s no cure? You prevent it. Every 11 seconds an organization falls victim to a ransomware attack, don’t let it be you. There are spam and ransomware protection services out there for a reason, and they work. You may be thinking, how? Organized crime is becoming increasingly intelligent and is becoming increasingly difficult to detect.Â

Astaris offers extensive support and protection against attacks like this, to prevent these emails from entering your email inbox in the first place. Let’s break this down

• Two-factor authentication is set up for all of our customers who take on our spam and ransomware protection package, alerting you when someone tries to access your email
• Astaris set up this protection for all of our G-Suite customers, giving them peace of mind
• Identifies suspicious emails and suspicious links before they enter your inbox, eliminating the risk of you opening it
• Installing mail filtering software on your system, which filters out malicious emails as well as junk emails, keeping your mailbox clutter-free

Incidents like this can be easily avoided and for very little cost. From as little as 54p per inbox, Astaris can keep you and your business protected, and take it from us, that is a lot cheaper than falling for a scam!

Being vigilant

Spam and ransomware protection is the best and most effective way to protect your email inbox and ultimately protect your business and its customers.Â

There are, however, a few extra steps you can take to be extra vigilant when it comes to keeping your data safe and secure.Â

• Unlike your house or office being robbed, ransomware doesn’t involve breaking in, just logging into your email. So choosing strong and complex passwords is so important to protect your email from these cyber criminals! We understand how difficult it is to remember all your passwords with different variations flying around, but with modern-day technology including password security vaults, there’s no excuse! Get in touch with Astaris today to find out more about this.
• Be mindful of the content you look at. Visiting unsafe and fake websites is opening the gates for an increased chance of an attack. If you are unsure, always look out for the padlock symbol in the URL (website address should begin with HTTPS) if it doesn’t have this, it may be a fake website.Â
• If it doesn’t seem right, don’t click! Any suspicious links or images in email attachments that just don’t seem right, simply avoid them. If you are really unsure, hover your mouse (without clicking) on the link and the URL will appear very small at the bottom of your screen and you can see where the link will really take you.
• It’s not just email, so many websites and platforms we use daily have our email on file, so try and be vigilant when using social platforms such as Facebook and avoid clicking on suspicious links or any other website that you have registered with your email address.
• Stay updated, keeping your devices updated will not only improve your user experience but will also keep the security on your device up to date. Giving you the best chance of avoiding something like this happening.

So, there are many different methods you can take to protect your business from a near-miss as we’ve just seen. Being vigilant and providing staff training and education can minimise the risk of an attack, but ultimately, investing in spam and ransomware protection for your business is the best way to keep safe and secure!