Spam, where to start? SLAM
An industry standard acronym, SLAM. But what does it stand for and how can you apply it to your business to detect spam?
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- (S)ender
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- (L)inks
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- (A)ttachments
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- (M)essage body
Is the sender legit or is it spam?
Conducting a thorough examination of the sender’s email address is crucial. Scammers often use tactics such as address spoofing or creating look-alike addresses to deceive recipients. These methods can easily lead to confusion and mistaken identity of the sender. Here is an example of an imitated Curry’s account, the name suggests it’s legitimate but the email address is not associated with the company domain.
Do you check links?
Well firstly, you should always check your links before clicking on them! But, how can you check if they’re legitimate or not? Simply hovering over them will give you a good insight into their legitimacy. If this was a real email then it would take you to the curry’s website and not “fdske.com”.
What about attachments?
As cyber criminals become more advanced, it becomes increasingly difficult to identify which file formats to steer clear of. Malware can now be embedded in a variety of document types, including PDFs. To safeguard yourself, it is essential to avoid opening attachments that seem out of the ordinary or unexpected. We suggest sending us your attachments so we can analyse and check them through an antivirus or anti-malware application, we can minimize the risk of infection with a simple phone call or email!
Lastly, the email message itself
Typos are a massive giveaway with regards to email legitimacy, attackers are lazy at the best of times. So double check that email over as this can be a big red flag.
So, are you spam aware?
Despite providing thorough training, human error remains the primary source of data breaches. To combat this, we implement various measures to decrease the likelihood of scam emails reaching our clients. During the onboarding process, we establish additional security protocols such as the following:
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- Endpoint mail filtering
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- Header improvements for external emails
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- Mailbox retention and deletion of spam
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- Annual user training