Phish and Tips – keeping your info safe

For financial professionals only

People and businesses in the UK have lost £2.5bn to fraud and cybercrime in the past year. In the financial sector, a whopping 46% of successful cyber-attacks start with phishing.

Yet it’s easy to do something about it. Just changing a few small habits can hugely improve the chances of keeping your and your clients’ information out of the hands of scammers.

Check if your info has been compromised in a data breach

• Enter your email or telephone number – both personal and corporate information can be checked in seconds https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Check how quickly a password could be ‘cracked’

• Scroll down the page for tips on creating secure passwords too https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password

Set up Multi-Factor Authentication

• Secure your accounts across important websites and protect your Parmenion account by installing our App on your mobile or tablet

Stop trying to remember multiple passwords

• Start using a password manager

Check for signs of phishing

• Look out for impersonations of trusted brands or people in the email address. Attackers can’t send easily emails from a company’s real domain name, so they tend to use generic accounts such as ‘hsbc@gmail.com’.
• Inspect any URLs in the email by hovering over them before clicking.
• Is the request unexpected? Are you being asked to action something urgently? Messages such as ‘send these details within 24 hours’ or ‘you have been a victim of fraud – click here immediately’ are signs of phishing.
• Don’t automatically trust emails from known contacts such as clients, colleagues, or friends –their account may be compromised. Phone them to check; you could be helping them take back control of their account and information.
• Consider the format of the email or text– phishing emails are typically generic and often refer to you as a valued customer, friend, or colleague – rather than by name.
• Beware of URL redirects– pay attention to subtle differences in website content.
• Remember, emails from known cloud applications (such as Google Drive) can still contain malicious files and links– ignore requests you’re not expecting to receive.

Check your recent sign-in activity for important accounts

• Like Outlook, Gmail and Instagram to identify suspicious login attempts

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