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How to recognise a phishing e-mail

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021

We can’t warn you against every phishing e-mail– there’s a new variation every day. You are the only person who can protect yourself from phishing scams and identity theft. The only way to do this is to learn to recognise a harmful e-mail by paying attention and keeping an eye out for a few tell-tale signs.

Typical characteristics

1. Well-known companies used as bait
These e-mails are sent out to thousands of different e-mail addresses and often the person sending them has no idea who you are. If you have no affiliation with the company the e-mail address is supposedly coming from, it’s fake. For example, if the e-mail is sent by ABSA, but you are a Standard Bank client. Also, see a list of types of companies generally used in phishing e-mails below.

2. Spelling and grammar
Improper spelling and grammar is a dead giveaway. Look for obvious errors.

3. Lack of client information
Phishers use a generic greeting. For example, the e-mail greets you as “ABSA customer” or “Dear user”, etc. If the company was sending you information regarding your faulty account, they would mention your account details or name in the e-mail. A company would go through the trouble to address a client by name and won’t ask you for your information. Banks have your information on their system.

4. Deadlines/Sense of urgency
Phishing e-mails demand an immediate response or stipulate a specific deadline, creating a sense of urgency and prompting you to respond before you’ve looked at the e-mail properly. For example, demanding that you log in and change your account information within 24 hours or your account will be closed.

5. Malicious links
Although many phishing e-mails are getting better at hiding the true URL you are visiting, often these e-mails will show a URL that is unrelated to the company. Move your mouse over the link and look at the display address. Is this the website address of the company who seems to be sending the e-mail? If not, it’s clearly a phishing e-mail.

6. Attachments
Phishing e-mails occasionally include an attachment which contains malware. When opened, it will run and install a small programme on your PC, which hackers use to gain access to your PC and information.

Typical phishing topics

• Account issues, such as accounts or passwords expiring, accounts being hacked, out-of-date accounts, or account information has to be changed.
• Credit cards expiring or being stolen, a duplicate credit card, credit card transactions, etc.
• Confirming orders, requesting that you log in to confirm recent orders or transactions before a delivery can be made.
• Winning a prize or getting something for free. Both Woolworths and Pick ‘n Pay’s have been used in fake campaigns to lure people into providing personal details.

Company names phishers generally use

• Any major bank. ABSA and Standard Bank are both popular choices in South Africa.
• Insurance companies, for example, Outsurance.
• Internet service providers
• Apple or Microsoft claiming your account has been suspended.
• E-mail providers, e.g. Gmail or Yahoo
• SARS. Especially at this time of year. (We’ve had a few of these.)
• DHL or any delivery company claiming they have a package for you.
• Your company’s medical aid, for example, Discovery
• Your company’s IT department
• Casinos and lotteries
• Online dating websites
• Popular websites such as Amazon, Facebook, MySpace, PayPal, eBay, Microsoft, Apple, Hotmail, YouTube, etc.

A few tips to keep you safe

• Never follow links in an e-mail you’re uncertain of. Rather visit the page by typing the address of the company in your browser. For example, instead of clicking on the “ABSA URL” in the e-mail, type http://www.absa.co.za in your web browser and log in at their official website.
• Never send personal information by e-mail. If a company is asking for your personal account information or claiming your account is invalid, visit the website and log in to the account as you normally would. If everything seems in order and there aren’t any urgent notifications from your bank, you should be fine.
• If you are still not sure about the status of your account or are concerned about your personal information, contact the company directly, either through an e-mail address provided on their website, over the phone or visit your local branch.
• Delete the e-mail and don’t click on links or fill in any information.
• If you’ve already divulged your information, immediately change your password or PIN and contact the institution to inform them of the breach.
• To report spam or phishing e-mails send an e-mail to sysadm@sun.ac.za with the subject SPAM with the suspect e-mail attached. IT system administrators will then be able to block the e-mail to protect other users.

[SOURCE: www.computerhope.com]

Tags: hacking, phishing, spam
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How do I report phishing?

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021

You’ve received a suspicious email, what should you do with it? Firstly, don’t click on any links. But just as important, send it to us so we can prevent more staff and students falling prey to the scam. We encourage our customers to submit potential phishing examples for review. Using these submissions, the Cyber Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) can learn from the analysis of these messages. This collectively helps to improve the level of virus and spam detection.

What is phishing?

Phishing attacks are designed to steal a person’s login and password details so that the cyber criminal can assume control of the victim’s social network, email, and online bank accounts. Seventy percent of internet users choose the same password for almost every web service they use. This is why phishing is so effective, as the criminal, by using the same login details, can access multiple private accounts and manipulate them for their own good.

More on how to recognise a phishing email.

Report phishing

On the ICT Partner Portal:

Go to https://servicedesk.sun.ac.za/jira/servicedesk/customer/portal/6/create/115
Fill in your information and add the email as an attachment. Your request will automatically be logged on the system.

*Spam or phishing examples must be sent in either.EML or .MSG format as an attachment and must not be forwarded. This ensures the original email can be analysed with its full Internet message headers intact. Alternatively, use the mail application to save the email (usually located under File | Save As) as an .EML or .MSG format to a folder location, and attach the saved file to a new email.

Tags: malware, phishing, report phishing, report spam, spam
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To meet or not to meet …

Monday, October 4th, 2021

Due to the current working-from-home situation we are likely to spend more time either in a teams meeting or on a Zoom call. Those working from home might have experienced a sharp increase in the number of virtual meeting invites since lock down started last year.

We are either bouncing from one meeting to the other or struggling to schedule meetings, trying to establish who’s available and who’s not. This might be a short-term overreaction to the lack of other communication channels and social contact, but it could get in the way of productivity and efficiency.

Productive meetings are ones where you need to share expertise and the topics discussed require synchronous collaboration – where people need to be live at the same time, if not the same place. It is also helpful if you are dealing with conflict or need to build closer relationships.

On the other hand, if there’s no clear outcome, the topics are irrelevant, the outcome could be delivered without a meeting or you have no active role except to listen, then you may want to decline the meeting invitation. Typically, if we look at meeting content 40% of meetings are not necessary at all.

If you accept meeting invitations by default, particularly those without an agenda, you are saying that what the other person wants to talk about is a better use of your time than your own work.

Declining meetings can be a challenge to existing meeting agendas and fixed ways of working, but discuss the necessity of a meeting with your meeting leader. This could open up a discussion in your team about which topics you need to discuss and which are not important. Below is an infographic decision tree which might help you or your colleagues reconsider scheduling a meeting.

Take this opportunity to improve your meetings, save yourself time and improve on working towards a productive environment.

SOURCE: https://www.wrike.com/blog/meeting-infographic-decision-tree/

[ARTICLE BY MANDY WANZA]

Tags: productivity
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New e-waste bins at IT

Monday, October 4th, 2021

As part of the campus “Going Green” project Facilities Management will be placing e-waste bins at selected spots on campus. We encourage staff and students to use these bins for any non-asset e-waste.

Two of these yellow bins (see example right) will also be located at IT. A bin will be placed at the IT HUB by the entrance and a second one will be placed at the IT Main building in Hammanshand Rd at the service entrance (facing IT the door on your right) Both bins will be just inside the buildings by the doors.

WHAT IS E-WASTE?

Electronic waste (e-waste) or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) are the terms used to describe old, end-of-life or discarded appliances using electricity. It includes computers, consumer electronics, batteries etc. which have been disposed of by their original users. More on e-waste.

We encourage all staff and students to use these bins for any non-asset e-waste. Bins will be serviced by Wasteplan and weekly inspections will be made by the university’s Wasteplan site supervisor to assess when a collection is needed.

For assistance and enquiries please email fmhelpdesk@sun.ac.za.

Tags: e-waste, ewaste
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Remember to check your Junk Email folder

Monday, August 30th, 2021

To ensure that staff and students aren’t exposed to malicious phishing or spam emails our system administrators and security team had to enable a stricter spam filter earlier this year as added protection.

A spam filter assigns every message, received and sent, a spam confidence level based on the likelihood that the message is spam. Depending on its level an inbound message may be relayed directly to the user’s Junk Email folder. The filter looks at certain criteria contained in the email it rates, for example too many hyperlinks or a suspicious file attached. Tweaking the filter can be tricky – we don’t want you to miss important emails, but at the same time it’s our responsibility to protect you and all our staff from harmful attacks.

For this reason, it’s important that you regularly look in your Junk Email folder in case the spam filter might have relayed it there.

The main purpose of Microsoft Outlook’s Junk Email Filter helps is to reduce unwanted email messages in your Inbox. Junk email, also known as spam, is moved by the filter away to the Junk Email folder. This is done at an institutional level by Microsoft (as mentioned above), but you can also flag or “un”flag messages from a person or company as Junk email.

How to change your spam filter’s preferences.
How to tag an email as junk mail.
How to report spam or junk email to Microsoft. (downloadable PDF-document)

If you have any questions, please log a request on the ICT Partner Portal.

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