{"id":678,"date":"2025-07-31T08:59:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T13:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/?p=678"},"modified":"2025-10-15T03:18:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:18:32","slug":"back-to-school-phishing-protection-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/blog\/back-to-school-phishing-protection-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Back-to-School Phishing: 5 Ways to Protect Your Business from Seasonal Email Scams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s that time of year again\u2014and not just for pencils and backpacks. <\/span><b>Back-to-school phishing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> scams are flooding inboxes, and your business could be next.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While parents and school staff are top targets, attackers often use this season as a cover to launch wider campaigns. From fake invoices to spoofed emails, <\/span><b>back-to-school phishing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> attempts spike every year\u2014and they can hit local businesses just as hard as individuals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here\u2019s what you need to know to stay ahead of the threat.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Why Back-to-School Phishing Is So Effective<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scammers know people are distracted. They also know businesses are managing changing schedules, PTO, and system updates. That\u2019s why <\/span><b>back-to-school phishing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> tactics often look like:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fake emails from school districts or PTAs<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bogus device or software orders<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spoofed domains that mimic real vendors or partners<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Urgent subject lines: \u201cPayment Needed,\u201d \u201cAccount Issue,\u201d \u201cNew Policy\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Risks to Your Business<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Phishing may start with a personal inbox\u2014but it can quickly affect company systems if an employee clicks the wrong link.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here\u2019s what can happen:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ransomware infection via email attachment<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Account takeovers through login credential theft<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Downtime, data loss, and reputation damage<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>5 Ways to Protect Against Back-to-School Phishing<\/b><\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Train Your Team<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Everyone on staff should know what phishing looks like\u2014and what to do when they spot it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Use a Modern Email Filter<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Many <\/span>back-to-school phishing<span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> emails can be blocked before reaching users if you have smart filtering in place.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Even if credentials are stolen, MFA helps stop unauthorized access.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Update All Software<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Patches fix known vulnerabilities scammers love to exploit.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Have a Response Plan<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If something slips through, your team should know how to escalate the issue immediately.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><b>Back-to-School Phishing Isn\u2019t Going Away<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Email attacks evolve constantly\u2014and they spike around big seasonal events. With a strong security strategy and a trained team, your business can stay protected.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At CMIT Solutions of Brandon\u2013Lakeland, we help local businesses identify risks before they become problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you\u2019re unsure your protections are up to date, now\u2019s the time to review them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\ud83d\udcde (656) 220-2180<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \ud83d\udce9 mworlund@cmitsolutions.com<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \ud83d\udd17 <a href=\"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/contact-us\/?utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=post&amp;utm_campaign=b2s_phishing\">Contact us<\/a> to get protected today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Sources:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisa.gov\/news-events\/alerts\/2024\/07\/01\/back-school-phishing-scams\">CISA (Cybersecurity &amp; Infrastructure Security Agency) \u2013 Phishing Awareness &amp; Trends (Summer 2024)<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.proofpoint.com\/us\/resources\/threat-reports\/email-threat-report-q2-2024\">Proofpoint \u2013 Threat Brief: Q2 2024 Email Trends<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.knowbe4.com\/blog\/2024-phishing-trends-and-how-to-defend\">KnowBe4 \u2013 Phishing in 2024: Trends and Training Gaps<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s that time of year again\u2014and not just for pencils and backpacks&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[54,32,53,29],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-it","tag-back-to-school-phishing","tag-data-protection","tag-email-scams","tag-phishing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmitsolutions.com\/brandon-lakeland-fl-1222\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}