To help our customers reduce their exposure to losses stemming from a cyber-related incident, we
maintain relationships with more than a dozen service partners. These cyber security experts assist our
clients with cyber risk management, emergency data breach response services, and post-breach risk
mitigation. The more cyber support an organization can access to recognize suspicious activity, such as
phishing, and get assistance as soon as possible, the less likelihood they will endure a significant
interruption in business causing potentially dire reputational damage or financial losses.
Response Ability
Undoubtedly, the first line of defense against phishing and other social engineering attacks is to educate
employees via workshops, seminars, and one-on-one training. Employees have an individual
responsibility to recognize and report suspicious activities. Phishing simulations—an authorized “pretend”
phishing attack performed on a company’s behalf, but unknown to employees—is a diligent way for
companies to understand and measure the effectiveness of their cyber risk education programs.
Other proactive defense measures include thinking as if you are a hacker. So-called “white hat hackers”
know that in a spear phishing attack that targets an individual, the hacker will do everything possible to
paint a profile of the target to build the most convincing phishing campaign. In this scenario, a hacker will
delve into an individual’s social media comments and photographs to learn where they shop, what they
buy, and the names of work colleagues, especially superiors. By subsequently performing an authorized
spear phishing simulation against an unsuspecting employee who thinks that their role would not make
them a target, everyone has a better appreciation for the fact that anybody can be a target.
With regard to the first line of offense, it is essential for companies to provide employees with a single
point of contact, such as a phone number or email address, to report cyber incidents requiring urgent
attention. Something so simple has enormous value to a company’s IT security operations and incident
response teams—whose days are usually spent searching networks and systems for suspicious
activities. Having a single point of contact for employees helps narrow this search, freeing security
professionals to focus on incident response actions.
It’s also important for all businesses to stress that a hotline is not just a tool for reporting evidence of
possible phishing attempts—it is critical that employees use it to report when they are duped by phishing
scams. This way, the individual is not penalized for the error and security teams have advance notice in
order to respond to the cyber incident and contain any potential damage.