Don't feed the phish!
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,
Trent IT would like to remind all members of our community about the dangers of phishing and how to respond to them in when they appear in your inbox, especially as we begin a new academic year. While our systems remove over 180,000 phishing attempts every year, some will continue to get through. Please keep the following in mind when reviewing email in your inbox:
- Trent IT will never send a message that asks you to click a link to perform an action on your account – messages claiming require a link click to avoid deactivation, fix problems with your account, or get more storage are likely phishing.
- Email attachments can contain malware or viruses - Never open an attachment that you were not expecting.
- Never assume a message is legitimate based on the sender – Email can be easily forged to appear to be from anyone.
- Think before you click – Most email-based scams are designed to trick you into acting on impulse. They contain tones of urgency or indicate that if you don’t act quickly, you will miss out on a good opportunity.
- Consider the context of the message – Messages appearing without context, opportunities that emerge suddenly or messages from officials that seem out of place are all good indicators of a scam.
- Never provide personal information or funds in response to an email – Phishing and scam emails have multiple goals, and it’s not always to trick you into getting your username and password. Some might be looking to acquire information to facilitate identity theft, or others might be financial in nature and are trying to trick you into sending money, bitcoin, or gift cards. Always be skeptical of messages that seem out of place.
For more information on phishing please see the resources posted in the service hub (www.trentu.ca/hub) by searching for phishing.
Thank you,
Tim MacInnes
BSc (Hons), MBA
Acting Associate Vice President,
Information Technology
Trent University
1600 West Bank Drive
Peterborough, ON K9L 0G2
Office: 1(705)748-1011 ext. 7898
Posted on August 29, 2022