31.4% of all employees across all sectors fall for phishing attacks but what exactly is phishing? Phishing is a cyber attack that leverages email as a weapon. The email is disguised as a request from someone or something you may know. The goal is to convince people to download a malicious file, provide sensitive information, or to receive money through various channels (gift cards, wire transfers, etc.). That’s not even the worst of it! 43% of data breaches in 2021 started with a phishing email. Downloading a malicious file from an email could open the door for an attacker to silently enter your work or home network and begin exfiltrating anything they can get their hands on.
Don’t be afraid to open up those emails in your inbox though, below are some easy ways to identify a phishing email:
Demanding urgent action
Unexpected/suspicious attachments
Requesting login credentials, payment, or sensitive data
Misspellings and poor grammar
Inconsistencies in email addresses, links & domain names
When in doubt you could forward the email to reportspam@ceres.k12.ca.us for a second opinion or contact the company/department directly through communication channels you find through Google.
Stay Techie,
Dustin Layne
System Analyst
Information Technology Services
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