Phishing is the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, banks, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure unsuspecting public.
The Information Security Awareness campaigns are an ongoing effort to increase and improve the online security and saftey of KAUST employees. The following information might have alerted you that it was a phishing attempt: the email was sent from outside KAUST, specifically from payroll@uk.securebankinggroup.com, which of course is not a KAUST-owned website.
This campaign is a good reminder for us all in the KAUST community to not be as forthcoming in opening attachments that come from external emails. In the latest campaign an email was sent out to 3,698 community members, of those 1,356 opened the attachment.
Congratulations to Mr. David Black, Mr. Javed Khan and Mr. Mohammed Shokry, who were selected at random from among other reporters of the phish as the ‘Phishing champion’. They each won an iPod for their diligence.
For further information on phishing email the IT Helpdesk or call 808-0900.
For details on how to avoid being phished, please click here.