Cork Institute of Technology - IT Services

Colleagues,

Building on our #AREYOUPATCHEDGREEN and #THINKB4UCLICK Cyber Security awareness campaigns, we also want to make staff and students aware of the perils of Phishing.

What is Phishing?

• The term phishing relates to an attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by pretending to be a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication
• It's basically a fraud scam, whereby potential victims are contacted via email, instant messaging, text message or by phone
• Often, these messages look like they are from a legitimate source, like a bank, a workplace, utility company or mobile phone company
• They can even going so far as to use a company logo in the body of the email to make it look official and to get you to divulge personal information

How to Spot a Phishing Attack?

Resulting from a very positive partnership between IT Services and the Department of Technology Enhanced Learning, an interactive game has been developed to help colleagues protect themselves, and CIT, from Phishing attacks by understanding the risks. Some important points about this game:

• It is not mandatory, we are hoping staff will engage to help protect themselves and CIT
• Participation is not being tracked, we will not know who has played the game
• There are no repercussions for poor scores