Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails claiming to be from a reputable source in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information such as passwords or credit card information. It is a tool used to try to coerce people into clicking on a malicious site or to download malicious software such as Ransomware. Ransomware is a type of malicious software that prevents access to data or a system until a sum of money is paid.
Our best defense against phishing is learning to identify and report a fraudulent email before any actions it requests are followed. Please review the image on the right for some of the common characteristics of a Phishing email. It is also very important to back up your data and check to make sure your backups are valid!
For some additional training on Phishing and Ransomware, please visit our Information Technology training on Safe Colleges and our Information Security course on Gustavus hoonuit.
Enjoy this video from the National Cybersecurity Alliance about Phishing and Ransomware.
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