This Cyber Risks & Liabilities document is not intended to be exhaustive nor should any discussion or opinions be construed as legal advice. Readers should contact legal counsel or an insurance professional for
appropriate advice. © 2013-2014 Zywave, Inc. All rights reserved.
Spam, Phishing and Spyware Defined
Companies nationwide are now storing much of their
information on computer servers and databases, and
because that information has great value, hackers are
constantly looking for ways to steal or destroy it. In fact,
according to the 2013 Norton Report, over 7 million
people were victims of cyber crime last year, and it cost
Canadians $3 billion—roughly $380 per victim.
A computer intrusion could cripple your company,
costing you thousands or millions of dollars in lost sales
and/or damages. Hackers can obtain access to personal
information in many ways, including spam, phishing and
spyware. Below are definitions and examples of these
three types of scams.
Spam
Spam is any unsolicited electronic content, often known
as junk mail. It can take the form of a text message,
direct mailer, phone call or email message. Spam
emailing in particular is quite common, and spam emails
often contain some form of scam, virus and/or invasive
or inappropriate content.
Prevent your company from falling victim to scams and
viruses in spam messages by teaching employees to
ask the following questions while using company email:
• Do you know the sender? Beginning July 1,
2014, all senders are required to identify
themselves when sending a commercial
electronic message. If employees don’t
recognize the sender’s name, they should not
open the email.
•
Is the grammar and spelling poor? Sometimes
spammers intentionally misspell words or use
words incorrectly to sneak emails past your
company’s spam filter. Encourage employees to
be on the lookout for this trick
.
• Have you received something from this sender
before, but now the email looks drastically
different? It could be a fraudster. Encourage
employees to look at all emails with a discerning
eye, even those coming from known senders.
• Does it sound too good to be true? If it sounds
too good to be true, it probably is.
• Is it in your spam folder? Make sure employees
know the danger of opening messages that go
straight to their spam folder. Many people
consider spam to be annoying but harmless.
However, the majority of computer viruses are
“caught” via email. Employees should never
open messages that your system has
designated as spam.
Additionally, company policies regarding computer use
are an effective way to reduce the impact that spam has
on your system. Minimally, your policy should require
employees to:
• Turn off computers before leaving the office
each day. Spam and viruses can strike a
computer at any time when it is sitting idle and
still connected to the Internet.
• Keep work email communications separate from
personal communications. Employees should
use a personal email that is not connected to the
company email for personal communications.
• Limit the amount of time employees can spend
on social media sites (for example, only allow
them to use the sites during breaks), or prohibit
their access entirely during the workday.
Courtesy of
Excalibur Insurance Group
(16 pages)
(48 pages)
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