#5MinSecurityRead: The risk that’s waiting in the inbox

• by Ellie Hurst
• Advent IM Blog

Many organisations have taken advantage, quite rightly, of the furlough scheme. In their absence, some of their mail will have been filtered and collected by team leaders, managers and other non-furloughed staff. But not all of it and not everyone. We know that cyber criminals have taken advantage of the pandemic and in some style, most researchers have reported upticks in whaling, spear phishing and standard phishing attempts, not to mention ransomware. They have definitely made hay while the sun is shining (in a manner of speaking) and it’s not over yet.

So, what happens when those employees leave furlough and open up email accounts that will potentially be filled to overflowing, some valid, some junk and some actually sinister. One thing I have certainly noticed since the start of furlough, was an uptick in another kind of mail, irrelevant. (I put it down to marketing teams possibly being furloughed and remaining staff emailing on a bulk basis and not bothering to filter lists.) It all adds up to a huge amount of time that will need to be spent wading through a lot of items. Hiding somewhere in there will be phishing attempts that staff and businesses need to be prepared for and demonstrate extra vigilance.

When furlough ends and businesses start to return to normal, or at least some semblance thereof, we need to make sure that our sense of urgency allows time for security to be high on the priority list and time be allocated to cleanse inboxes properly and avoid this risk.