IT services professionals in Dallas used to advise specific protections against phishing that would catch the majority of cybercriminal intruders. Today, what worked a decade ago isn’t enough. Certainly, those best practices need to remain in place, but new ones are also necessary. Phishers have learned that old tactics don’t work, and have so changed their underhanded ways.

Notable Shifts in Phishing Strategy

Dallas IT support specialists advise businesses to keep their staff updated on the known dangers of phishing. It becomes important to update safety protocols every few months. Ideally, a refresher course would be taught every month. Every quarter is good too, biannually makes sense, and at minimum, you should update staff every year pertaining to shifts in the market as regards tech trends. Presently, the following changes characterize phishing tactics:

Not All MFA Is As Effective As It Was: Hackers Are Learning

IT services experts in Dallas strongly advise updating Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) protocols, as hackers have found workarounds for some of these protection strategies. It was bound to happen eventually. Get the latest in MFA solutions to be safe.

Reduced Mass-Email Volume Gets Past Certain Protective Filtering Software

Before, mass emails sent out by phishers would be rejected by default when filters noticed a certain threshold of outreach had been breached. If an address sent 1,000 emails of a certain kind, the filter might reject what they sent. Well, phishers learned how to probe such thresholds. If the limit were 1,000, they would send 999. Now, they understand this enough to send out low thresholds of phishing emails. Sometimes, they’ll only send 50 or so. Accordingly, either filter thresholds need to be augmented, or new means of segmenting emails need to be designed.

Phishers Are Becoming More Savvy As Regards English

Watch for poorly worded emails replete with misspelling and homonyms. Now, phishers are becoming savvy enough to get the English right. You’ll want to look for collateral signs of underhanded activity like the time of day when the email was sent, or something like that.

Maintaining Security Despite Changes in Cybercriminal Strategies

Technagy can help you establish MFA protocols that retain security despite the changes. Additionally, we can help you adjust high and low volume thresholds as regards email filters. Lastly, beyond simple English errors, we can help you determine collateral means of identifying and rebuffing phishing attempts. To learn more about recent changes in cybercriminal tactics and protection strategies, get in touch with our IT services team in Dallas.