Archives - Phishing


National Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Tips for Avoiding Phishing

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM). The 2018 edition represents an important milestone for the occasion – the 15th anniversary of its original proclamation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance. NCSAM is a great opportunity to brush up on your security practices and also learn new techniques […]

A guide to defending yourself from advanced phishing attacks

The word “phishing” might conjure up images of relaxing by a lake or stream to catch some fish, but there’s nothing laid-back about it. Phishing campaigns lure you with seemingly must-click offers – anything from get-rich-quick schemes to insistent security updates – and then steal your personal data. While phishing is among the oldest and […]

Access your accounts via web browser instead of links

Phishing is one of the oldest and most effective cyberattack techniques. To reduce your risk of having sensitive data stolen, never click on any emailed or texted links purporting to take you to your account page for a password reset or other modification. Instead, if you’re unsure whether action is merited, navigate to the account […]

Filter out potential message-based scams in Apple iMessage

The Messages app on any iPhone or Mac collects both your SMS texts and iMessage chats. For the latter, you can configure a setting that disables notifications for any iMessage from a phone number or email address that’s not already in your contacts list. That can filter out phishing scams and general message spam.

Be wary of email hyperlinks

Avoid clicking on hyperlinks in emails; type the URL directly into the address bar instead. If you choose to click on a link, ensure it is authentic before clicking on it. You can check a hyperlinked word or URL by hovering the cursor over it to reveal the full address.

Be suspicious of sloppy emails – they might be phishing scams

Phishing emails are designed to fool you into clicking a link or attachment. To do so, they mimic the look and feel of official corporate or government communications. You can fight back by not engaging with any email that has a long/garbled sender address or subject line, is filled with typos and odd formatting, or […]