How to Protect Your Business from Phishing Attacks

The vast majority of successful cyber attacks start with a single email. Phishing - tricking someone into clicking a malicious link, opening a dodgy attachment or handing over a password - remains the number one way businesses get breached. The good news: it's also one of the most preventable.

What is phishing?

Phishing is a social engineering attack. Rather than hacking your systems directly, criminals trick your people. A convincing email pretends to be from a bank, a supplier, Microsoft, or even your own CEO, and pressures the recipient into acting quickly.

Common variants include:

• Spear phishing - a targeted attack using details about you or your company.
• Business Email Compromise (BEC) - impersonating a senior person to authorise a payment or data transfer.
• Smishing and vishing - the same tricks via text message or phone call.

How to spot a phishing email

Train your team to pause and check for these red flags:

1. Urgency or threats - "Act now or your account will be closed."
2. Unexpected attachments or links - especially invoices or "documents to review".
3. Mismatched sender addresses - the display name says one thing, the actual email another.
4. Requests for credentials or payment - legitimate organisations rarely ask this way.
5. Generic greetings and odd language - "Dear customer", spelling slips, unusual phrasing.

The golden rule: if an email creates pressure to act quickly, slow down and verify it through a separate channel.

The technical defences

Awareness alone isn't enough - layer it with technology:

• Email filtering to catch malicious messages before they reach inboxes.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) so a stolen password isn't enough to get in.
• Endpoint protection to stop malicious attachments - see endpoint protection vs antivirus.
• DNS and link protection that blocks known malicious sites.

The human defences

• Regular staff training and simulated phishing tests.
• Clear reporting - make it easy and blame-free for staff to report suspicious emails.
• Payment verification processes - always confirm bank detail changes by phone.

These habits are central to our wider small business security checklist and a key reason phishing so often leads to ransomware.

The bottom line

Phishing succeeds by targeting people, so your defence must combine smart technology with a well-trained, confident team. Get both right and you shut down the most common route into your business. Want help putting these protections in place? Request a callback or explore our IT support service.