NCSAM Month

Every October, Sacramento State serves as a champion of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) which features educational campaigns, resources, and tips on how to out-trick hackers. Each week we shared topics through SacSend broadcast emails and social media to increase awareness to empower every Hornet to stay safe from phishing schemes.

• Week 1: 10/3 "Kickoff NCSAM month/Duo Flooding"
• Week 2: 10/10 "Fake Jobs"
• Week 3: 10/17 "Password Management"
• Week 4: 10/24 "Report Scams"
• Week 5: 10/31 "Happy Halloween/Topic Roundup"

Types of Phishing

The National Cybersecurity Alliance offers a full library of topic-specific cybersecurity resources you can download - but in general, look for these tip-offs that what you've received may be a scam:

• Feels suspicious/out of left field. If you're not expecting this type of message, don't recognize the sender, or you've never received correspondence like it before.
• Urgent or emotionally appealing language or threats, to get you to act quickly.
• Unexpected attachments or vague links to "click here." Untrusted shortened URLs are another tip-off.
• Asks you to reply with personal/confidential/financial information, such as your ID or password, or to click a link to submit personal information.
• Email address doesn’t match the sender: for example, official Sac State communications will only come from @csus.edu email addresses. Careful though - addresses can be spoofed, so pay careful attention to the message content for clues.
• Generic email salutation instead of your name, or an incorrect recipient, or "Dear User."
• The “From” field has a .com, .org, or .net address, not a name ("Bob Smith") or specific group (“Office of the President”).
• Contains typos and grammatical errors

Emails/Texts/Phone Calls

Phishing schemes are correspondence designed to steal from you. They often look or sound official, with familiar logos or messaging, and will try to trick you into giving up information that can be later used in scams. We may open what we thought was a safe email, attachment or image only to find ourselves exposed to malware or a scammer looking for our personal data.

Phishing is more than just email, it's also arriving through:

• Phone calls (spoofed calls, voice phishing or "vishing"), and/or
• Text messages (SMS phishing or smishing)

Qishing

A QR code (Quick Reponse Code) is a two-dimensional barcode that can store various types of data. It's often used for click-and-go access to websites, apps, or information when the user scans it with their smartphone camera.

QR code scams often send recipients to fake log in pages in order to steal their password. The messages/QR codes may promise discounts, rewards, or request personal or sensitive information. Scanning a QR code used in a phishing scam redirects users to a malicious website, or may even download malware onto their device. Be wary of this either in digital (or print) situations, such as job boards, event promotions, and more.

Spoofing

Spoofing is when a scammer deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. Scammers often use spoofing numbers so it appears that an incoming call is coming from a local number, or spoof a number from a company or a government agency that you may already know and trust. If you answer, they use scam scripts to try to steal your money or valuable personal information, which can be used in fraudulent activity.

Spearfishing

Unlike phishing, which is a broad net cast to large groups of people, spearphishing is a targeted attempt to steal your sensitive information through messages that appear to come from someone you may know. Spear-phishing attackers find their victims by scanning social networking sites and gathering an individual's email address, friends list, geographic location, and any posts about new gadgets that were recently purchased. The attacker then uses this information to act as a friend or a familiar entity and send a convincing but fraudulent message to their target asking them to open a malicious attachment or click on a link that takes them to a spoofed website to provide passwords, account numbers, PINs, and/or access codes. Spearfishing is the most successful form of acquiring confidential information on the internet, accounting for 91% of attacks.

Advance-Fee Scam

An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is one of the most common types of confidence tricks. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines an advance-fee scam as "when a victim pays money to someone in anticipation of receiving something of greater value - such as a loan, contract, investment, or gift - and then receives little or nothing in return."

The scam typically involves promises a victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the scammer claims will be used to obtain the large sum. When a victim makes the payment, the scammer either invents a series of further fees for the victim to pay or simply disappears.

Report Suspected Phishing

Received something phishy? Now comes the important part — reporting it so we can do some detective work to protect you and our entire campus community from further damage.

Do not click any links or open any attachments (they may contain viruses or malware), and report the message immediately in either of these ways:

1. Built-In PhishMe Reporter Tool in Outlook
   You can quickly report suspicious emails directly through your University Outlook menu using the PhishMe Reporter tool - it automatically generates a report to the IRT Information Security Office team.
   
   
2. Email the IRT Information Security Office

• Open a new email message to "abuse@csus.edu"
• Drag and drop the suspicious message into the body of the new message as an attachment
• Add a subject line such as "possible phishing email" and click send

Lastly, delete the message. Don’t reply or click on any attachment or link, including any “unsubscribe” link. The unsubscribe button could also carry a link used for phishing.

Duo Flooding

Multifactor authentication with Duo is a great protection against unauthorized access, but if your Sac State account becomes compromised, hackers may attempt to send you Duo push notifications you didn't originate in the hopes that you'll accept and allow them to gain access to campus systems as "you." If you receive a Duo push notification you did not originate, follow these steps:

1. Press the deny button, then click "yes" to report it as a suspicious login.
2. Change your password ASAP to something completely different at password.csus.edu.

Other Ways to Protect your Account

Sacramento State also participates in 2-Step Verification with Duo, which provides extra account protection even if an attacker gains access to your password. As a security best practice, all Faculty, Staff, and Students are required to enroll and use Duo to protect their account and identity.

As an additional security best practice, be sure to download and use Global Protect Virtual Private Network (VPN), which protects your connection whether on- or off-campus - and is especially important if you’re using an unsecure public Wi-Fi connection.