How Do I Protect My Business from Phishing?

Why Phishing Works

Phishing succeeds because it exploits trust and urgency. An email appears to come from Microsoft, your bank, your CEO, or your supplier. It asks you to act quickly. Most people comply.

No single control stops all phishing. You need layers.

Layer 1: Email Security

Block malicious emails before they arrive.

Essential:

• Spam filtering - Catches obvious junk
• DMARC/DKIM/SPF - Stops domain spoofing
• Malicious link detection - Identifies known bad URLs
• Attachment scanning - Catches malware

Better:

• Sandboxing - Opens attachments in isolation to detect malicious behaviour
• Time-of-click protection - Scans links when clicked, not just when delivered
• Impersonation protection - Spots emails impersonating executives or partners
• AI-based detection - Catches novel attacks signature-based filters miss

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (in Business Premium) provides most of this. Third-party tools add more.

Layer 2: MFA Everywhere

Make stolen credentials useless.

Even if someone clicks a phishing link and enters their password, MFA blocks the attacker from logging in.

This is your safety net. Enable it on:

• Email
• VPN
• All cloud services
• Admin accounts (especially)
• Everything that supports it

Layer 3: Staff Training

Make people part of the defence.

Technology catches most phishing, but some gets through. Trained staff recognise and report it.

Effective training:

• Regular and short - Monthly 5-minute modules beat annual hour-long sessions
• Realistic - Based on actual phishing techniques
• Tested - Phishing simulations measure effectiveness
• Positive - Reward reporting, don't punish mistakes

Create a culture where people report suspicious emails without embarrassment.

Layer 4: Verification Processes

Stop business email compromise.

Sophisticated phishing doesn't contain malware. It impersonates a trusted person and requests action—change bank details, transfer money, send data.

Technical controls can't stop this. Processes can:

• Verify payment changes - Call the supplier on a known number (not from the email) to confirm bank detail changes
• Dual authorisation - Large payments require two people to approve
• Out-of-band confirmation - Confirm unusual requests through a different channel (phone, Teams, in person)

The most expensive phishing attacks succeed because someone bypassed the process "just this once."

Quick Wins

1. Enable MFA on all accounts - If you do nothing else, do this
2. Check your DMARC - Use our Domain Health Check
3. Enable Safe Links and Safe Attachments in Microsoft 365 if you have Business Premium
4. Run a phishing simulation - Know how vulnerable your team actually is
5. Create a reporting button - Make it easy to report suspicious emails

What We Do

Our managed service includes layered phishing protection:

• Email security properly configured
• MFA enforced with Conditional Access
• Regular security awareness training
• Phishing simulations to test and improve
• Incident response when something gets through

Because phishing is how most attacks start.