Email data from our district suggests more than 3,000 phishing emails have been sent to district employees over the last 90 days. Successful phishing attempts may lead to viruses on your devices, and some phishing scams lead to ransomware attacks, which lock district devices and can be very costly to correct.
Bad actors targeting school districts may be looking to gain access to not only employee data but sensitive student data as well. As district employees, it’s our duty to help protect that data. Phishing emails or texts may pose as a company or person you trust to attempt to elicit important information. As a district, we want to promote proper cybersecurity by providing some tips to identify phishing and to protect yourself:
- Look at the subject: is someone you ordinarily communicate with or is related to your job responsibilities? Is it sent from a suspicious domain like @microsoft-suport.com? Is it out of character for a sender you may work with?
- Hover over, but DON’T CLICK, any hyperlinks. Is the link-to website different from the one displayed in the email?
- Read over the email. Is the email content misspelled or have poor grammar? Is the request to open to an attachment or link odd or illogical?
Remember: there is a
Phish Alert in your Outlook email, on both the web browser and desktop application. You can see below for more examples of phishing, which uses social engineering, and how to find the Phish Alert button in the new Outlook desktop app. If you ever fall for a phishing attempt, please reach out to the Technology Help Desk at extension 2031.
