October is IT Security Awareness Month

From the IT Group: October is IT Security Awareness Month, and here is a security tip: Last month a “phishing” attempt was sent to Keene State College faculty/staff email. “Phishing” is email spam (sent by someone pretending to be an organization or person) that asks you to enter your personal and/or account information. If you respond to these emails, your information is compromised.

It can be difficult to determine what is legitimate email and what is phishing. At Keene State, the IT Group will never ask you to verify any information via email or any other electronic source. We already have that information, and there is no need for you to verify anything.

Legitimate financial institutions, the government, and the IT Group will not ask for personal information through email. The IT Group uses a standard email template when communicating with the campus. Critical campus-wide messages from us will always be addressed to the Outlook Global Address List (_GAL), and we will identify ourselves at the beginning of the message.

Our messages always tell you to, “Contact the IT Group HelpDesk at 8-2532, email helpdesk@keene.edu, or stop by our office on the 2nd floor of Elliot Hall with questions concerning this or any other technology issue,” and our signature line provides location and contact information.

Would you like to learn how to tell if an email is legitimate or phishing? Test your knowledge with this informative five-minute test. You may be surprised by what you know (and what you don’t).

So don’t be fooled. Computer security is a partnership and you need to be responsible for your computer security too. Whenever you are in doubt, contact the IT Group HelpDesk. We can help!

If you would like more information regarding Phishing and other helpful security information, please visit the HelpDesk website.