Cybercriminals use phishing—a type of social engineering—to manipulate people into doing what they want. Social engineering is at the heart of all phishing attacks, especially those conducted via email. Technology makes phishing easy. Setting up and operating a phishing attack is fast, inexpensive, and low risk: any cybercriminal with an email address can launch one.
According to Verizon’s 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report, the education sector saw a rise in social engineering–based attacks. Students, staff, and faculty all suffered losses when personal data and research were disclosed to unauthorized parties. Phishing played a part in more than 40% of these breaches. Knowing what you’re up against can help you be more secure. Here are a few things you can do to guard against phishing attacks:
- Limit what you share online. The less you share about yourself, the smaller the target you are for a phishing attack. Cybercriminals use information you post online to learn how to gain your trust.
- Protect your credentials. No legitimate organization or department will ask for your user ID and password or other personal information via email. ICTO definitely won’t. Still not sure if the email is a phish? Contact ICTO Help desk.
- Beware of attachments. Email attachments are the most common vector for malicious software. When you get a message with an attachment, don’t open it—unless you are expecting it and are absolutely certain it is legitimate.
- Confirm identities. Phishing messages can look official. Cybercriminals steal organization and company identities, including logos and URLs that are close to the links they’re trying to imitate. There’s nothing to stop them from impersonating University, financial institutions, retailers, and a wide range of other service providers. If you get a suspicious message that claims to be from an organization, use your browser to manually locate the organization online and contact them via their website, email, or telephone number.
- Check the sender. Check the sender’s email address. Any correspondence from an organization should come from an organizational email address. A notice from your college or university is unlikely to come from @.
- Take your time. If a message states that you must act immediately or lose access, do not comply. Phishing attempts frequently threaten a loss of service unless you do something. Cybercriminals want you to react without thinking; an urgent call to action makes you more likely to cooperate.
- Don’t click links in suspicious messages. If you don’t trust the email (or text message), don’t trust the links in it either. Beware of links that are hidden by unknown URL shorteners or text like “Click Here.” They may link to a phishing site or a form designed to steal your user ID and password.
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