St Patrick’s Day, is a day that we celebrate Saint Patrick, a missionary that helped bring Christianity to Ireland. He used the shamrock, as a symbol to explain the Holy Trinity. In traditional St Patrick’s Day celebration, we get decked out in green and set out having fun. We may spend the day looking through those clover patches in hopes that luck is on our side. Searching in hopes that would find the rare four-leaf covers before anyone else did. If you have partaken in a four-leaf clover hunt, you will know how much of a challenge this is.
Did you know the odds of finding a four-leaf clover are approximately 1 in 10,000?1 The odds of winning a major lottery jackpot, like the Powerball, are about 1 in 292.2 million.2 With that said, did you know that the odds of receiving phishing emails are quite common? A 2020 report by researchers at Symantec has said the odds of receiving a phishing email are 1:4,200. 3 Not only that, but the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) states that 33%, or 1 out of 3 Americans faced some form of identity theft.4 This Identity theft is usually due to he victim falling for a phishing email.
THE ODDS ARE NOT IN YOUR FAVOR
What can you do to better your odds?
- Recognize the signs of phishing: Look for unfamiliar greetings, unsolicited messages, grammar and spelling errors, a sense of urgency, suspicious links or attachments, requests for personal information, and inconsistencies in email addresses or links.
- Don’t respond to a phishing email: Avoid sending a response to suspicious messages.
- Report suspicious messages: Inform your email provider or your company’s IT department and report the email as phishing.
- Protect your computer and cell phone by using security software: Set the software to update automatically to deal with new security threats.
If you have any questions regarding how to protect yourself better from cyber attacks or have a small business or organization that needs help moving in a more security-minded direction, please feel free to reach out to us and we can see have we can better serve you and our community.
God bless, and keep yourself and your flock safe
John Johnson
Shepherd Security
- “How Rare Is Four Leaf Clover? Increase Odds,” Neh Institute Hub, March 6, 2025, https://nehinstitute2018.libs.uga.edu/how-rare-is-four-leaf-clover-increase-odds ↩︎
- Kimberly Amadeo, “What Are the Odds of Winning the Lottery?,” The Balance, October 24, 2021, https://www.thebalancemoney.com/what-are-the-odds-of-winning-the-lottery-3306232 ↩︎
- Threat Hunter Team Symantec, “Threat Landscape Trends – Q1 2020,” Symantec Enterprise (Blog), June 9, 2020, https://www.security.com/threat-intelligence/threat-landscape-q1-2020 ↩︎
- “2025 Identity Theft Facts and Statistics,” identitytheft.org, 2025 Identity Theft Facts and Statistics ↩︎
shepherdsecurity.net 
Leave a comment