By Jad Omar<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UNIVERSITY CITY, SHARJAH \u2013 The American University of Sharjah\u2019s Information Technology Security Department has announced tips at the start of Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October to help students be aware of \u201csocial engineering attacks\u201d and keep their information and accounts safe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IT Team Leader Reem Sobeih stressed that the university\u2019s IT staff is constantly at work trying to protect the AUS network from threats. Her department\u2019s advice for Cybersecurity Awareness Month includes cautions about several forms of \u201cphishing\u201d attacks, which are misleading communications with the goal of stealing a recipient\u2019s information or money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its October email, the IT Security Department also advised AUS community members that \u201cIf you believe you are the target of a social engineering attack, stop all communication with the attacker and report the incident immediately.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phishing Emails<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Phishing emails occur when someone sends an \u201cinfected\u201d link that can give them access to a person\u2019s account or personal information. It can fool a person by claiming the recipient has won a prize; that a password somewhere needs to be changed or user data updated; or that their \u201cpackage is being delivered\u201d and asking the recipient to provide further details. The links usually contain a virus. One way to spot these attempts is by making sure who sent the email, which may give a general greeting instead of using the recipient\u2019s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spear Phishing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of random emails, spear phishing targets specific people. They research their victim and personalize the email, making recipients more likely to be fooled. The messenger will pretend to be a friend or co-worker. These emails usually convey a sense of urgency to pressure people to click on the link. The IT Department advises staff and students to make sure that the email is university or work related and doesn\u2019t come from a personal account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vishing (phone calls)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Phone calls pretending to be someone the recipient trusts, or a well-known company, is known as vishing. People using this manipulation tactic ask for personal information without proving who they are. These attackers usually urge the recipient to \u201chelp them\u201d with something financially. The IT Department urges staff and students to always verify who is talking to them before giving out any personal information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SMS Phishing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n SMS phishing is when someone sends misleading messages that cyber-attack the recipient\u2019s phone by just replying to them. The IT Department advises to not reply to these messages and delete them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Jad Omar UNIVERSITY CITY, SHARJAH \u2013 The American University of Sharjah\u2019s Information Technology Security Department has announced tips at the start of Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October to help students be aware of \u201csocial engineering attacks\u201d and keep their information and accounts safe. IT Team Leader Reem Sobeih stressed that the university\u2019s IT staff is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,21,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-4794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news","8":"tag-aus","9":"tag-safety","10":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcmmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}