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
The Cisco IronPort spam filter that prevents the vast majority of malicious email messages from ever reaching your SMU mailbox is about to get some serious upgrades. These upgrades bring new features that make it even harder for spam to get through and easier for you to identify the few messages that slip through. Let’s go over what these new features will do when they are rolled out January 12, 2020. 
We all bristle at those annoying spam calls that we receive not only on our personal cell phones but our office telephones as well. Both our old and new telephone systems have experienced this irritating problem, and a new solution will help reduce the amount of these calls we receive. 
This year for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM), we are encouraging everyone to think more critically when reviewing emails by putting themselves in the villain’s shoes with the “The Biggest Phisher” Phishing Contest. Find out what makes a good phishing email and how to spot them when they hit your inbox.