If you’re reading this, you may have spotted December’s test phishing email! This email was sent as part of the Secure UD “Take a BITE out of phish!” campaign, a University initiative to raise our community’s awareness about phishing attacks, their consequences, and how to avoid becoming a victim. Each month, a random sample of employees will receive a harmless test phish like this one:
Let’s look at what makes this email suspicious:
- Check the sender. If the “from” address is unfamiliar, take a few extra moments to examine the contents of the email. In this case, the email is sent from “fbook@administartor.com”, a Facebook spoof with “administrator” misspelled.
- Don’t be pressured by a sense of urgency. Cyber criminals may use a false sense of urgency to trick you into acting without thinking. Step away and take a moment to think it over.
- Don’t be blinded by official names/logos. Many criminals will use “scraped” logos and branding from a company or university’s website in order to make their emails appear official. For example, this email has a logo that imitates the official Facebook Messenger logo.
- Don’t click links. Links in a suspicious email may take you to a criminal or malicious website. When in doubt, hover your mouse over the text of the hyperlink (you should see the full URL, which will help to show whether it leads to a legitimate website).
Always exercise caution; if you receive a suspicious request for your personal information, instructions to visit a suspicious website, or download a suspicious attachment, forward it to reportaphish@udel.edu.
And as always, Think B4 U Click!