Before You Click, Show It to the Cat: Why Phishing Starts with People

Phishing doesn’t always arrive in your work inbox. It can start with a WhatsApp message, an OLX listing, a link shared in a chat or a request to pay a delivery fee. Scammers exploit urgency, trust and our everyday habits—which is why even strong technical safeguards can’t solve the whole problem.

Laura Lipska from SPIREE spoke about how easy it is to find yourself on the other side of a digital trap in MamStartup’s Sprawdzam podcast. The idea for CatPhish, a product developed by SPIREE, was sparked by an attempt to sell a fridge on OLX. The experience showed that anyone can be targeted, including someone who works in cybersecurity.

One principle came up throughout the conversation: user awareness matters, but it shouldn’t be the only line of defence. Companies need technical safeguards, practical training and procedures that help them respond when something goes wrong. Cybersecurity should also be explained in terms of real consequences—for example, what downtime, an unavailable system or lost access to data could mean for a business.

That’s why SPIREE takes a holistic approach to security, covering technology, processes and people. Before you click a suspicious link, you can take one simple step: pause and check.

Listen to Laura Lipska’s conversation on the MamStartup Sprawdzam podcast.