Blooming Dangers: A New Season for Cyberthreats
Posted on 15th April 2025 at 07:55
Do you feel that fresh Spring warmth creeping in yet? It’s just a little reminder that for a few months, the freezing cold fogs and dark mornings are behind us. You might even dare a few daydreamy Google searches for holidays and festivals.
Spring might lift your spirits, and it might bring a renewed love for all things green and new, but it brings with it a whole new spate of cyberthreats. It seems that cyber-rascals enjoy a renaissance of their own. What should we be keeping our eyes out for?
Let’s go on a phishing holiday
You can be forgiven if your mind is somewhere in the Algarve or Canary Islands right?. You might have been looking on EasyJet or Expedia choosing your summer experience. The thing is cyber-rapscallions know that people are planning their holidays.
There is a higher chance that you will receive holiday-based emails from companies making themselves look like reputable holiday-brokers and apps. If you are unsure whether this delicious discount on your Grecian adventure is real, remember:
• Check for typos or bad English throughout the email.
• Check to make sure the sender’s email address is legitimate.
• Make sure they don’t want payment details or other sensitive information.
• Check you can find that discount on the legitimate app.
Be extra careful with public Wi-Fi
Public Wi-Fi needs to be treated with extreme care all year round, however it is worth bringing it up again as Spring is here. You might be like many people who have seen the sun and thought “beer garden” or “coffee shop”.
People tend to be a lot more mobile when the outdoors doesn’t look like it is going to cryogenically freeze them into the next century.
If you’re likely to be one of those nomadic wanderers, remember to protect yourself:
• Don’t shop or enter your card details into the internet when logged onto public Wi-Fi.
• Stop your phone from auto-connecting so that you can make sure you’re accessing the correct Wi-Fi option.
• Use a VPN, this will give you an extra layer of protection.
• Don’t allow file sharing.
Question QR codes at fairs, fetes, and festivals
Soon all the craft ale fetes, village fairs, and folk festivals will be springing up in a field near you. Whilst most of the vendors there will be licensed to some degree, people do still like to sneak suspicious little QR codes into leaflets and on posters. Some vendors require you to use a QR code to place your orders for food.
It’s almost too easy to whip out your phone and click away. Protect yourself against quishing attacks:
• Check the branding is accurate and not suspicious.
• Verify authenticity on the business’ website.
• Rather than use your phone’s camera, use a QR code scanner app that will pick upon threats.
• Check the URL looks legitimate.
Be safe this spring.
It is important to remember that this advice doesn’t go solely for business computers or phones. An employee might accident get caught with some malware on their personal phone and then connect to your work Wi-Fi. It is worth reminding everyone of their cyber security obligations.
That isn’t to say we believe that people should stop being optimistic about actually having some decent weather in the UK this year. Nor should they drop the daydream of taking that All Inclusive trip to the Faroe Islands this year. We just want you to enjoy your spring time without putting all your business data at risk.
If you are interested in how to protect your business from cyber attacks, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01327 300 311, or email [email protected] with your enquiry.
Tagged as: Blog, Cyber Security
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