PHISHING CAUTION

SECURITY continues to be a very high priority concern. Hackers, ransomware thieves and other bad actors don't let up, and they can be from anywhere in the world.

Don't be the weakest link. Pay close attention to emails you receive. Avoid downloading files from questionable websites. Don't click on links in email or text messages unless you are absolutely sure they are legitimate.

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Phishing is a cybercrime in which the unsuspecting victim willingly gives sensitive information (personal, financial, business) to someone they believe is in an official/legitimate institution in which they have a preconceived relationship with.

Cyber-criminals can attempt to gain access to your computer, your network and your private information through Phishing. Often, this is done through an email (or text) that appears to come from someone you are familiar with and includes a link of some sort to click on, or a request for information. If an email comes in that has the External flag showing, proceed with caution! Phishing emails can also be identified when the email address and the Sender do not match. For example, if you get an email from James Smith who works here but the email address it is coming from is cyberdude77 at criminalmail.com (instead of an Uxbridge School email address), that is a dead giveaway. Many phishing emails also have misspellings, although cyber-criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated and email content can sometimes be almost indistinguishable from the real thing unless you know where to look.

Also, make sure that the Reply email is going to the right person. We have seen where an email is sent from the correct email address (that had been compromised), but any reply to that email was routed to a different but similar looking address that the hacker had created.

Lastly, text phishing (also known as smishing or sms-phishing) has seen a dramatic increase. Be extremely careful with links in text messages from senders you do not recognize. For most folks, their smartphone has an enormous amount of personal data and provides access to other accounts (such as banking) and it would be disastrous to have it compromised.

Posted 02-08-22