More than one in three Canadians say they have received a phishing message. Since the pandemic, phishing scams have exploded.
Fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated by the day, adapting to current events to maximize their chances of stealing personal information and money. On the contrary, cybercriminals are well aware that some businesses are healthy and represent a potential source of revenue for them.
Take dental clinics, for example. Despite a slowing economy, dental clinics continue to operate. People still have to go to the dentist. It’s hard to serve yourself when you have a painful cavity.
Dental practices therefore represent a potential source of income for fraudsters. What’s more, these fraudsters will target people who are sensitive to emergencies and more or less tech-savvy. Dental secretaries are a perfect target. Every day, secretaries receive dozens of calls and e-mails.
Secretaries are then at risk of unknowingly clicking on a fraudulent link in an e-mail that will download malware. Very often, these links allow thieves to download “keylogger” software. Despite company anti-virus programs and firewalls, small pieces of malware often manage to install themselves. They can be used to communicate information across the corporate network to cybercriminals.
Taking the keystroke logger as an example, this enables fraudsters to know every keystroke made on a computer. If this software is able to access other workstations in the organization, it is then possible to know all the keystrokes made by all the company’s employees and managers. This will make it possible, for example, to detect access to a bank account as soon as someone types “Desjardins…”. Fraudsters can then find out your bank account number and password. If you haven’t activated 2FA double authentication access protection, thieves will have no problem accessing your bank account. And remember, you’re responsible for the fraud, and your bank will rarely cover the theft of your money. You are solely responsible for the fraud.
All because of a simple click in an e-mail that may have seemed harmless and prompted the secretary to click. Very often, the e-mail is disguised under the name of a well-known supplier to reassure the secretary and encourage her to click on the link. With a single click, everything changes and the fraudsters have access to your corporate and personal banking information.
How can I protect my dental practice against phishing?
There are several solutions, including Fresk software, which eliminates all e-mails from non-legitimate contacts. This doesn’t guarantee phishing, but it does reduce it by over 98%, since only e-mails from legitimate contacts will be displayed to your secretary.
What’s more, you’ll reduce the fatigue associated with filtering through junk mail in search of legitimate e-mail.
