Cyber Security Awareness Month is here!

Learn how to detect phishing emails or text messages by recognizing:  

• Types of phishing : Email, phone call, text message, online shopping websites, gaming, social media, and direct message are all platforms cyber criminals use to show they are legitimate and gain access to your personal or banking information. An email containing threats, a text message saying you won the lottery, a phone call from a government official asking for your credit card and password are all examples of cyber fraud. Cyber criminals misuse the reputation of well-known persons and organizations to trick you and gain illegitimate access to your information.
• Phishing trends : We can practice precautionary actions if we know what scams are trending in the digital world. Stealing credit card information and selling organizational credentials have consistently topped the list. However, threat actors also use recent events (like the war in Ukraine or a major internet outage) and seasonal activities (like tax filing or tuition fee payment deadlines). Cyber criminals also use persuasive messages like lottery winning, romance scams, payment and refund messages, or even security alert messages from your bank or Amazon account in order to redirect users to a fake website that is similar to the legitimate website. 
• Social engineering: Cyber criminals use a broad range of human interactions to trick users into making security mistakes. They can start by building trust, showing empathy, sending fictitious threats or providing fake incentives like limited-time or discount codes. The goal of social engineering is to unconsciously force you to compromise your privacy and security, which can impact others around you and put your organization at risk. Be careful and think twice when you receive a tempting message.
• Malware and ransomware: Any malicious software that wants to take advantage of your information without your consent is generally known as Malware. Ransomware is a type of Malware which infects your computer and prevents you from accessing your data. Cybercriminals usually ask for non-traceable cryptocurrencies to unlock (or decrypt) your data. This short video provides useful information about how to detect and avoid Malware and Ransomware and some quick tips to recover your data. Never forget that prevention is much easier and has a lower cost than the cure. Do not click on links that you do not fully trust.

Discover the steps you can take to avoid falling into a phishing trap, starting with:  

• Password complexity: Simple passwords, especially words that can be found in a dictionary, are easy to break. Choose a password and preferably a passphrase to make it more secure. You can find useful information about the importance of passwords and how to choose a stronger one on our website. 
• Password manager: There are free and paid tools that generate complex passwords, store them in an encrypted environment and automatically fill in your credentials on sites you’ve saved without disclosing your password.  
• MFA: Would you like an extra security layer to ensure no one can access your data even if your credentials are compromised? Muti-factor authentication (MFA) does that for you! Make sure your MFA feature is enabled while logging in to your uOttawa online services. Check out our instructions on how to enable MFA for your uOttawa account. Your personal information and account’s security will significantly increase by using MFA. Enable it now if you haven’t already.  
• Regular backups: What is worse than losing a draft of an important work document you spent a couple of weeks to prepare, a year’s worth of reports from work, or personal photos with family and friends? To prevent accidently losing your data or having them encrypted by a ransomware attack, you can easily to protect your data with a proper backup. As a uOttawa staff or student, you have free access to Microsoft OneDrive with your uOttawa account, which you can use for backup purposes. You can learn more about backups on our website.  

Keep yourself and others safe by sharing your take-aways from Cyber Security Awareness month.  

• Practice how to detect a phishing attack  
• Let others know how to prevent phishing campaigns and spread the word