Sunday, April 22, 2018

New active shooter "emergency scare" phishing scam at college

Here is a scheme for college students to be aware of. A community college in Florida fell victim to a fake campus-wide security alert that awkwardly announced an "emergency scare" by email to students. Even though this hit just one school, it paves the way for more scams like it. And scams like this can lead to panic, a flood of calls to 911, and other harm.

KnowBe4, the organization that posted info about this scam, warns college students to be on the lookout for these potential variations in the subject line of the phishing email:
  • IT DESK: Security Alert Reported on Campus
  • IT DESK: Campus Emergency Scare
  • IT DESK: Security Concern on Campus Earlier
If you click the links in the message, you're asked to enter your Microsoft online account credentials, which the bad guys then steal from you.

Always, always be wary of any unexpected email that leads you to provide a user name and password. If you do inadvertently click such a link, look at the full web site URL in the address bar of your browser before typing anything. In this case, if the URL doesn't have "microsoft.com" in it, then you know it's a fake.

In fact, it is best to always check the URL before typing in your credentials anywhere on the world wide web. Is the domain name correct? Is the prefix "HTTPS" (not "HTTP"), which shows you that the information you type is secure? If not, leave that site without interacting with it.

For the story, see http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/04/prweb15410086.htm.

1 comment:

  1. Good info! My university has been combating this type of problem for a few months now. We have to stay aware and remain wary!

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