Cybercrime may sound like a word straight out of a sci-fi novel, but digital crimes are real — and they happen all the time. From phishing scams to malware, it’s important to stay vigilant and educated to avoid getting your information stolen. This Cybersecurity Month, the University of Calgary’s IT department wants to provide you with the best tips for staying safe online.
When it comes to cybersecurity, prevention is key. Installing up-to-date anti-virus/anti-malware software can keep your machine from getting infected. Ransomware attacks — in which your data is stolen, and a price must be paid to retrieve it — can be mitigated by backing up your data on external hard drives or uploading it to the cloud. It can also help to ensure your devices are regularly updated and have all the newest security patches.
Something else to look out for is phishing, which is the act of impersonating a person, corporation or institution online to gain access to someone’s personal data. Phishing emails have become more refined and difficult to discern from real emails over the past two decades.
However, there are still some elements that might give away a phishing scam such as misspelled words, suspicious links and numbers, or an unknown sender. If you feel an email is suspicious, the best course of action is to report it to IT via reportphishing@ucalgary.ca, or, if on a personal…
