The winners of the Defend Our Cyber Dam Raffle are ticket numbers: Convenience card winners #827896, 828053, 828351, 828175 and American Dream Pizza winners #827929 and #828232. CLAIM YOUR PRIZE BY SENDING E-MAIL WITH A PICTURE OF YOUR WINNING TICKET and let us know whether you want to collect the prize in person or have it mailed to you. Send your email to [email protected] by noon on 10/5. We will respond to arrange to get your gift delivered. Congratulations to all the lucky winners and thanks for joining us during National Cybersecurity Awareness Month to Defend Our Cyber Dam!

Cybersecurity is Cool

(We promise)

Scroll through this quick website to learn how to keep yourself protected against phishing and other forms of Social Engineering.

Employment Scams

As this this poster says, a very common scam is an email saying someone is looking for an assistant or some other similar, easy work. They'll usually also say they pay a high weekly salary to you just for doing basic office work from your personal computer. In reality they just want your personal information and eventually want your bank account information.

  • If it looks to good to be true, it probably is
  • If you or anyone you know has sent their banking information to one of these scammers, you can report it to the police
  • As always, you can send it to [email protected] if you're unsure about an email like this

 

  

Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware is an ever-evolving form of malware designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the systems that rely on them unusable. Malicious actors then demand ransom in exchange for decryption. Ransomware attacks are some of the most common cyber attacks on the Oregon State Community. In order to minimize your risk for a ransomware attack please:

  • Make sure to maintain offline, encrypted backups of data and to regularly test your backups. Having backups that are inaccessible to cyber-criminals makes their ransom demands obsolete.
  • Ensure devices are properly configured and that security features are enabled. For example, disable ports and protocols that are not being used for a business purpose.
  • Ensure antivirus and anti-malware software and signatures are up to date.

Social Engineering

Social engineering is a broad category of attack, but is one that almost anyone who uses the internet will come across. It's defined as the use of deception to manipulate people into disclosing sensitive information, and can range from high school pranks to massive international data breaches. One of the most common versions of social engineering is phishing, and you're likely to encounter it in your student email account. What's phishing? Here's some clues:

  • Look out for any emails that tell you to click on a link or log into something urgently
  • Always look at the from address and ensure it looks correct
  • Don't open email attachments that you aren't expecting or are unsure about
  • Forward any emails that you're suspicious of as an attachment to [email protected]

Protect Your Privacy

In this day and age more an more companies are selling your data without your knowledge, and hackers want to steal it. Thankfully there are some easy ways to help keep your data more private, which means you'll get less spam!

  • Don't publish your student email on the web or sign up for non school related accounts with it
  • Turn off tracking in your browser and on websites (Privacy Badger is a great browser extension)
  • Think before you put personal data on the web and social media