AntiPhish – IT Connect

Phishing Email Simulations Return After Hiatus

Phishing attempts—those pesky emails that try to lure you into revealing personal info like passwords and financial information—are constantly evolving to thwart the University’s effort to stop them. While users only receive a small percentage of these emails in their inboxes, it takes one wrong click to start off a chain of new attempts.

For several years, SMU has worked to make our community more aware of these phishing attempts by sending simulated phishing emails. While we all have had to pivot and change our routines over the past couple of years, it was decided it was best not to add one more thing to everyone’s plate, so we took a break from the simulation. Yet, with the recent influx of successful phishing messages, the OIT Information Security Team will relaunch the simulated phishing email campaign in the coming weeks. Continue reading Phishing Email Simulations Return After Hiatus

Email Phishing Simulations to Come Back this Fall

Phishing attempts – email messages sent by hackers pretending to be your friends, coworkers, or trusted companies – have wreaked havoc across the Internet for years. These messages try to lure you into revealing personal info like passwords and financial information, and their alarmist tone can be deceiving.

Over the past few years, SMU has worked to make people more aware of these phishing attempts by sending simulated phishing emails. For those falling victim to the phishing attempts Continue reading Email Phishing Simulations to Come Back this Fall

Anti-Phishing Campaign Expands to Student Accounts

After the success of our anti-phishing campaigns sent to faculty and staff, the OIT Security team will soon be expanding this program to the student body to continue to educate as many in the community as possible about what to look for in suspicious e-mails.

Phishing is one of the most common ways that criminals use to obtain your login credentials or other personal information to wreak havoc. By learning what to expect in these messages, you can get rid of them quickly instead of getting tricked! Students can expect these anti-phishing campaign messages to be sent out starting this week.

Continue reading Anti-Phishing Campaign Expands to Student Accounts

New Email Phishing Simulations Coming Soon

Phishing attempts are email messages sent by hackers pretending to be your friends, coworkers, or trusted companies. These emails try to lure you to reveal your personal information, such as your passwords, credit card numbers, or bank account numbers, with alarmist sounding messages. Some may even direct you to an official-looking website requesting such information. These websites may also be infected with computer viruses or other forms of malicious software. Phishing messages have potential to damage our IT infrastructure and expose sensitive University data.

Due to the increased volume of recent phishing attempts, SMU’s Information Security Team is launching another round of the phishing awareness program, AntiPhish. This program will send simulated phishing emails, analyze how SMU employees respond to these messages, and track the success of employees in recognizing and deleting phishing emails. For those falling victim to the phishing attempts, the Information Security Team will offer training tools to help employees learn how to avoid falling victim to phishing messages. The phishing simulations will take place at SMU in the coming weeks.

As a reminder, if you receive any email message that appears malicious or asks for confidential personal information, Information Security asks that you do the following:

Contact the IT Help Desk or your local IT Support group regarding the email.
Delete the email from your mailbox without clicking on any hyperlinks or attachments.

For valuable resources and other information, please visit the Information Security website at www.smu.edu/OIT/Infosec.

If you have questions about the upcoming phishing simulation or training tools, please contact the IT Help Desk at 214-768-4357 (HELP).