Is your organization frequently under attack by hackers, and you can't seem to keep up? Maybe it’s time you create an anti-phishing policy and use security awareness training protocols. Almost three-quarters of leading organizations around the world neglect cybersecurity and cybercriminals take advantage of human nature when targeting these brands and their employees.

Anti-phishing policies explain what assets need to be protected in organizations and outline the strategies used to do that. This article explains how you can create an anti-phishing policy for your business and how it helps your overall cybersecurity strategy.

How to Design an Effective Anti-Phishing Policy for Your Business

An anti-phishing policy is a document guide that outlines how an organization can defend itself from targeted cybersecurity attacks. It covers how updates and patches should be applied to network systems and includes information about security controls that are to be implemented. An anti-phishing policy aims to raise awareness about social engineering threats and ensures that data security procedures are followed correctly.

Good anti-phishing policies work towards building a workplace culture that encourages enhanced security compliance and significantly reduces the number of data breaches. If you’re thinking of incorporating an anti-phishing policy for your business, you’re on the right track.

Here’s what you should know about designing an anti-phishing policy in your organization.

1. Have the Right Tools in Place

One of the biggest mistakes most companies make is not having the right cybersecurity tools in place. Hackers use a variety of phishing techniques to conduct data breaches in companies and attack unsuspecting victims. A simple DDoS attack can render all servers useless due to an employee’s negligence or the lack of reliable tools. Employee negligence should also be accounted for since having the right technology installed is just not enough. In most cases, hackers exploit human errors to cause a data breach, and this is where having the right anti-phishing software and patch policies make a difference. Your anti-phishing policy should automatically block untrustworthy sites and limit user access privileges based on your employee’s job roles as well.

2. Encrypt Email Messages

Encryption techniques should be applied to keep your messages confidential when transmitting data over email. One way to do this is to convert HTML documents to plain text and email them to employees. An encryption key can be added to confidential documents so that hackers can’t open them even if they manage to intercept them. This encryption key will unlock your files, and the only person who will have access to that are your team members.

Email encryption software can be used to block zero-day attacks and prevent spam from passing through network systems. Malicious emails get automatically quarantined by these programs to prevent email users from accessing such content in their inbox and making mistakes.

3. Block Unapproved Websites and Enable Firewall Protection

Employees should understand that there are consequences to visiting certain websites on an official device or a device that can access the company’s data. Your anti-phishing policy should specifically address this and make a compilation of websites or guidelines regarding content your employees cannot view online.

All work must be done within the company’s VPN networks, and work email accounts should not be accessible on public networks. Your employees must get educated about safe browsing habits and learn how to engage with anonymous users online. If they follow the correct interaction practices, they’re less likely to accidentally leak confidential data or give clues to the hacker, who can use the info to break in.

4. Make Security Awareness Training Mandatory

Making security awareness training for employees mandatory at the workplace is essential. Hackers come up with creative and sophisticated ways to fool victims and break into network systems. A good cybersecurity training program will teach your team members how to use technology appropriately, safeguard their files, including how not to fall victim to social engineering attacks and various phishing scams. You can conduct phishing simulation tests at work to test your employee's understanding of various social engineering practices.

If you don't have the budget for security awareness training programs, there are plenty of free cybersecurity training plans that you can take advantage of. These walk new learners through the latest security and network protection practices via step-by-step modules. All you need from your employees is time and commitment.

5. Establish Good Remote Working Controls and Practices

Most companies are shifting to remote working models with employees working from home. Public WiFi and internal home networks aren’t as secure as private company networks. There’s no guarantee that information won’t be leaked, which is why it’s essential to ensure employee cybersecurity training programs are taken seriously. As an organization, it’s important to establish controls that block access to sensitive data and files for remote employees.

Regular cybersecurity awareness training assessment tests should be a part of your company’s anti-phishing policy.

Your management must clarify that employees aren't allowed to continue to work on future projects until they clear these assessments. This is to ensure everyone’s safety and privacy, making sure there are no security compromises. In a world where hackers can fake employee personas and resort to tailgating, there’s no telling what could happen if workers aren’t on their toes. Regular security awareness training assessments make sure they’re cyber-aware and constantly updated about the latest threats. After passing these tests, your team members will be able to report phishing emails and malicious threats effectively, thus bolstering and improving overall network security.

6. Use All-Round Anti-Phishing Software Solutions

Anti-phishing software solutions help organizations stay protected from a variety of network security attacks and malicious threats. Companies need to invest in these suites to improve their cybersecurity defense strategy. These programs are just as important as having anti-virus software installed on systems. From including warnings in email content, teaching users how to protect themselves online, and more, using anti-phishing software should be an indispensable part of designing a strong anti-phishing policy. Additionally, these solutions should work on the cloud, educate recipients, and warn them about potential threats online.

A program like CheckAPhish+ can protect your network against zero-day attacks and prevent hackers from bypassing blacklisted URLs using smart anti-phishing strategies. Your focus should be on protecting your assets and building up multiple protection players with an excellent anti-phishing software solution.

Ransomware, spear phishing, and malware attacks also get blocked across various platforms when you’re using a reliable program to stay protected. It’s not easy to protect data from hackers these days, but you can make it extremely difficult for them to break in by remaining on guard as a user or employee.

7. Make Strong Passwords and Set Other Guidelines

A strong anti-phishing policy sets the guideline for creating strong passwords for employees. Your cybersecurity anti-phishing policy should encourage employees to be aware of designing strong passwords and telling them what not to do. Cybercriminals blur the boundaries between personal and professional information by accessing the social media accounts of employees. Anti-phishing policies for organizations should include social media policies when sharing confidential or sensitive data online. Companies should make sure that employees don’t disclose details about their professional work and incorporate non-disclosure agreements when hiring. Phishing attacks on mobile devices are also becoming common and hackers run various SMS phishing and voice phishing scams online.

Other than outlining what data employees can share online about your company, your anti-phishing policy should consider other factors as well.

You can prevent tailgating incidents, eliminate unauthorized personnel from entering the premises using fingerprint scanners, facial recognition software, and stationed security guards. Granted, this may not be a direct anti-phishing solution, but these are catalysts that are tackled at the root, helping prevent more significant threats. If you can, try to make it a rule to avoid using company WiFi networks on personal mobile devices and data transmissions through them.

Don't just consider digital network security; think about your employees’ habits and workplace culture when designing an anti-phishing policy. It’s often the small details that hackers target and excel at making the most of.

Conclusion

Ultimately, your anti-phishing policy should be updated and continually evolving. It should adapt to emerging threats and implement protocols or rules to be followed at the workplace, social media, and about what employees can share outside the company as a whole. ATP anti-phishing policies are the best for large organizations and keep data safe, employing robust threat intelligence systems and security awareness training for employees to stay protected.

Social media users can get shocked about how much data gets leaked in public or on various online platforms. Anti-phishing policies should require employees to get permission from the organization before sharing any data about the company online. Regular security assessments and prohibiting employees from posting information about their job profiles and descriptions online should be a must. Finally, a good anti-phishing policy should start by implementing security awareness training to prevent data breaches, interact with users online, and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Don't neglect your organization's security and privacy! Stay protected from cybersecurity threats today by adding an anti-phishing policy for your company.

EC-Council has a solution to ensure that employees are trained to identify a phishing email and report it not to fall victim to social engineering tactics. They have developed a security awareness training-based application known as Aware to set up a training campaign for the entire workforce. Aware provides various phishing simulation templates to help employees understand what a phishing email looks like and identify it. It also allows you to test which employees are likely to fall victims to a phishing attack and be trained respectively. Apart from phishing simulations, Aware provides detailed training videos on social engineering, challenges, and games to plan a company-wide competition and creates an assessment report to help employer’s understand which employee needs more training.

Learn how to mitigate phishing attacks! Visit Aware Today