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
- Use strong passwords
- Practice “Unique Account; Unique Password”
- Use separate emails and accounts for your home and work life
- Consider a password manager to help with the use multiple emails and passwords
- 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