Phishing Attack Prevention for Virginia Businesses

Understanding Phishing Attacks: How to Identify and Prevent Them

In 2024, a famous financial services firm in Virginia experienced a sophisticated phishing attack that involved sensitive customer information. The breach started with a single email, seemingly from a trusted partner, asking an employee to verify account details. Within hours, cybercriminals were in confidential systems, costing the firm millions of dollars and a major hit to the company’s reputation.

The unsettling truth? Incidents like this are no longer rare. Phishing, where attackers impersonate legitimate organizations to trick the recipient into sharing sensitive information, continues to be one of the most common entry points for cybercriminals.

Why Phishing Is a Growing Threat for Virginia Businesses

Virginia’s business environment, including busy Richmond law firms and tech contractors supporting Federal agencies in Northern Virginia, is attractive to cybercriminals. In 2025, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that phishing constituted more than 34% of all reported cyber incidents and cost U.S. businesses more than $2.7 billion in direct loss!

Phishing is not just a function of Email. Attackers are successfully using the phone (vishing), texts (smishing), and social media as a means of phishing. The aim is always the same: to get you, or someone who works for you, to give either credentials, financial information, or access to what the attackers are after.

How to Recognize a Phishing Attempt

Phishing attacks are becoming more difficult to identify; however, there are still red flags that you and your team can watch for:

1. Suspicious Sender Information

An email may claim to be from a vendor or bank but have an almost correct domain name: i.e., @paypall.com vs @paypal.com

2. Urgent or Threatening Language

Phishers often try to create an urgency: "Your account will be suspended unless you act immediately." The phisher is attempting to short-circuit the target's rational process.

3. Unexpected Attachments or Links

Even if the email looks legitimate, hovering over a link may reveal a strange or unrelated URL. If you click the link, it could install malware or redirect you to a fake account login page.

4. Too good to be true offers

Any communication that promises a large payment, refund, or prize should immediately raise questions, particularly if the request is to "verify" personal details first.

Practical Steps to Protect Your Business

While phishing can never be eliminated, Virginia companies can greatly reduce their risk with a multi-layered cybersecurity strategy.

1. Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Even if an attacker can obtain an employee’s password, MFA requires a second action to confirm identity, such as a text code to a phone or biometric scanning. According to Microsoft, MFA can successfully block more than 99% of account compromise attempts.

2. Conduct Regular Employee Training

Your team will be your first line of defense. Schedule quarterly cybersecurity awareness sessions and run simulated phishing campaigns to test readiness. A Virginia-based logistics company was able to decrease successful clicks on phishing links by 70% over a 6-month period after working with Omega Technical Solutions, conducting constant testing and training.

3. Use Advanced Email Security Tools

Spam filters and enhanced email security gateways to avoid phishing emails from arriving in the inbox at all. Most modern email security solutions use AI to flag suspicious messages and quarantine them for review.

4. Monitor Network Activity

When installed, network monitoring tools, as well as intrusion detection systems (IDS), can notify your IT team if there is suspicious activity on your network. A sudden spike in outbound data transfers may indicate that you have a data breach in progress.

5. Have a Clear Incident Response Plan

If a phishing incident gets through, it is critical to act quickly. Make sure employees know how to report suspicious messages and that your IT team has a plan that you have tested to contain the incident and recover from it.

A Virginia Example: The Costs of Inaction

Earlier this year, a mid-sized engineering firm in Norfolk ignored multiple warnings about suspicious emails. One employee eventually clicked a malicious link that appeared to be an invoice from a subcontractor. The outcome is stolen credentials, project data on an employee's machine, and two weeks of downtime to rebuild systems. The estimated cost to the company was over $400,000, and was mostly preventable with basic phishing measures.

Ask Yourself: Could this happen to us?

If your company has never tested phishing measures or trained employees to identify scams, then you are leaving the door wide open. Cybercriminals are relentless, creative, and they are often just one click away from their payday.

Your Next Step Toward Security

Phishing is here to stay, but it doesn't have to be your company's downfall. Together with employee training, multi-factor authentication, network monitoring, and a proactive security culture, your business can have less appeal to a cybercriminal.   

For Virginia business leaders ready to assess their readiness, Omega Technical Solutions offers customized cybersecurity audits based on your local industry and compliance requirements.  

Contact us today to schedule your phishing risk assessment and start building a defense that is going to work as hard as you do!