Phishing scams used to be easy to spot — no, there wasn’t some rich prince who wanted to share his fortune with you, if only you could give him your credit card number. These days, email scams have evolved to a point where messages can look like they’re coming from your friends, co-workers, bank or even your own friendly neighbourhood tech department.
As April’s Cybersecurity Awareness month ends, the University of Calgary’s Information Technologies (IT) team wants to equip you with a few tips to stay cybersecure all year round. Even though online criminals see staff, students and researchers as prime targets for cyberattacks, there are many ways you can protect yourself.
What is phishing?
Phishing is an impersonation of a corporation, institution or person with the intent to gain access to personal or financial information or access to private data and systems. While some phishing (and its text equivalent, “smishing”) is easy to spot, the most sophisticated attacks are almost indistinguishable from UCalgary’s own internal emails.
These messages often contain a sense of urgency, prompting you to react quickly instead of giving the email a careful review to ensure its validity. Once you have clicked on a fraudulent link or downloaded a false document, the criminal can use their access to not only steal your information, but also use your accounts to…
