Opened a Phishing Email? Online Tech Support Mavens Are Here to Help

Is anyone perfect? No! We all are human beings and making mistakes is our tendency. Clicking a suspicious link or responding to a phishing email can happen to even the best ones of us. Sometimes, we do it in a hurry. Other time, the phishers being exceptionally ingenious with their ruse can make us do so. Whatever be the reason, the crucial thing is to be secure and salvage the situation as instantly as you can. The below list by the adept professionals at a trustworthy online tech support company in Australia includes the practices to be followed after falling for a phishing scam.   

     

Effective Steps to Safeguard Yourself

1.  Don’t panic: Merely opening & reading a phishing email may not affect your device. You likely be compromised when the document or program or .zip file within the message is opened or responded. Hence, first of all, there’s a need to make sure if you have been really phished. This will keep you away from unnecessary strain.    

2.   Disconnect the PC: Now, if you are sure that you have fallen victim, be quick & disconnect your computer from the internet. If it is a laptop or desktop, unplug the ethernet cable. However, in case of Wi-Fi, turn it off.

3.  Don’t be Embarrass: Feeling embarrassed, many people avoid expressing their mistakes in front of anyone. Don’t follow them rather notify your administrator about the issue as soon as you could. No one will blame you instead this act from your end will prevent the matter from getting worse.    

4.   Scan the Device for Threats: Most of the phishing emails encompass malicious codes that have been designed to capture keystrokes and take over laptops, computers, and networks. Deep scanning of the entire computer will detect such threats that should be removed so as to avert further harms.

5.  Modify Credentials: If the dubious email redirects you to a phony web page or site that ask you to provide your credentials, probably the info has been captured. So, in order to be on the safe side, modify all usernames and passwords you are using to unlock & defend your online accounts.

6.  Let IT Professionals Handle the Matter: Are you working for an organization? Like almost every company, it possibly contains an IT team to handle several sorts of tech issues. So, be benefited from this facility & come out of the problematic circumstances with help of those mavens. Alternately, reliable online technical support engineers can also aid you with a better solution.    

7.   Flag the Phishing Email: Programs like Outlook allows you to flag the specific email as phishing thus informing Microsoft about it. For further information, check out your program’s manual instructions.  

8. Inform Federal Trade Commission: Forwarding the spam email to anti-phishing groups having addresses like spam@uce.gov, phishing-report@us-cert.gov. acts as a positive attempt.

9.    Alert the Sender: Making the sender accustomed to the nightmarish fact that his/ her account or system has been hacked could evade further attacks.  

10.  Evaluate the Susceptibilities: Apart from you, there are many who can commit the same mistakes. Hence, it’s time to evaluate and remove all the vulnerabilities. This can be possible by implementing advanced anti-phishing policies that prevent future breaches.

   

Hope, the aforementioned steps to protect you against the damages due to phishing-attack acts as an effective remedy for you. However, if are ardent to know anything more, feel free to consult experts at online tech support company.