Recently the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), an organization within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) and a branch of the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications’ (CS&C) National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), encouraged users and administrators to review a recent article from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding Building a Digital Defense with an Email Fortress.

Are we have discussed in many posts before, phishing — the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from a reputable entity to induce an individual to reveal privileged information such as a password — remains a major security threat. Within the article, the FBI provides several helpful actions for businesses can take to reduce their risk of being phished, including reporting and deleting suspicious e-mails, and making sure that countermeasures such as firewalls, virus software, and spam filters are robust and up-to-date.

We encourage each of our readers to review the FBI’s guidance and consider whether their organization could benefit from any of the methods of protection provided.