Security Notice: On Campus Spear Phishing

There have been several reports of campus phishing emails. These are excellent examples of social engineering, called Spear Phishing.

Spear phishing emails are carefully designed to get a single recipient to respond. Criminals select an individual target within an organization, using the Acadia website, social media and other public information—and craft a fake email tailored for that person.

There are a number of 'red' flags in the email, for example:

  • the initial yellow banner that says “CAUTION: this email comes from outside Acadia”
  • the reply-to address is strange (their are several of these circulating using the same email)
  • the item they are asking you for is an odd request and gift

ACTION:
1. Report the email using the Phish Alert Button.  This reports it to Technology Services.
If you have responded to the request, please report it directly to TS (https://hub.acadiau.ca/TDClient/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=188)

2.  Sharpen your skills in identifying more of these threats by participating in annual cybersecurity training offered to all employees

  • Sign into KnowBe4 to see your dashboard: https://training.knowbe4.com/login
  • Check out your Learner Dashboard. What is your personal risk score?  There is even a little friendly competition - see if you can help your department rise in rankings on the Leaderboard!

3. Protect yourself

  1. Use strong passwords
  2. Practice  “Unique Account; Unique Password”
  3. Use separate emails and accounts for your home and work life
  4. Consider a password manager to help with the use multiple emails and passwords
  5. Install security updates on all your devices and software.

SUPPORT:
All maintenance and Service Advisories are posted in several locations:  Twitter or Facebook or the TS website.  All scheduled work is placed on the Maintenance Calendar.  
Follow our Tuesday Tech Tips - https://hub.acadiau.ca/TDClient/KB/?CategoryID=124
For an overview on Technology Services Support Protocols, please see: https://hub.acadiau.ca/TDClient/KB/ArticleDet?ID=924

CONTACT:
Acadia Technology Services
http://ts.acadiau.ca
hub.acadiau.ca
Live Chat; Twitter and Facebook

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