October is Cyber Security Awareness Month

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month and throughout the month the Brandon University IT Services unit will be sharing tips and tricks to keep you, your colleagues, and your family safe online. Also, during this month, we will conducting self-phishing exercises. This allows us to gain insight into the potential impact a phishing attack may have at BU and helps everyone learn how to appropriately identify phishing and how to report one when you see one. 

Here are a few things you can do to help you identify and prevent a phishing attack. 

• Don’t open any attachments or click on any links from a sender that you don’t know or were not expecting something from.
  • If you are unsure check with the sender first to confirm they meant to send you the email.
• Look for the External Sender Banner on your emails.
  • If the sender claims to be a BU account but the External Sender Banner is present, report the message as phishing.  
• Do not send any personal information over email.
  • If you are dealing with a reputable business, they will have proper means to complete the task of collecting credit card details and other sensitive information.  

Reporting phishing or malicious emails has gotten easier. We have multiple ways you can report phishing message to us: 

• Forward the message to antispam@brandonu.ca
  • We can review the message and either mark it as malicious or report back to you if you are unsure.  

Or 

• Click the “Report” button in Outlook.
  • This button will send the message to antispam@brandonu.ca as well as Microsoft. From there Microsoft will automatically review the message and if it is found malicious it will block and remediate the message for you. 
  • The “Report” button can be found along the top of your Outlook desktop app or the Outlook Web Application.

The IT Services Helpdesk also provides useful information about cybersecurity and safe online practices on their website at BrandonU.ca/Helpdesk/IT-Security.

Contact