Phishing Emails

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Phishing Emails

What is Phishing?

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by email and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.

Learn how to avoid being phished by learning the best practices from Sophos here.

If you have received any questionable emails please forward them to the IT Service Desk [email protected] or contact us at 905-735-2211 x7642 8AM-4:30PM Monday – Friday.