Phishing 101

• A phishing attacks is a popular form of cybercrime and a type of social engineering attack.
• A social engineering attack involves manipulating someone (you) into into sharing private information, downloading malicious software, visiting unsafe websites, or sending money to cybercriminals.

• Phishing by Communication Type
  • Email Phishing: The attack comes by email   
  • Smishing: The attack comes by text message (SMS)
  • Vishing: The attack comes by phone call (voice)
  • Social Media Phishing: The attack comes by a social media website or app

• Phishing by Target
  • General Phishing: The attack has no specific target, but is sent to a large group of unrelated individuals with the hopes of tricking at least some of them
  • Spear Phishing: The attack targets a specific group or type of individual (like school employees)
  • Whaling: The attack targets a high level employee or administrator 

• Where is it coming from?
  
  • Unusual Message from Familiar Sender: If the email looks correct but the message is very strange, this is likely a "spoof" email. It looks like it came from your real coworker or supervisor, but it is actually being sent from another email address. Reach out to the individual at their official MPS email or phone extension to confirm.

• • Unfamiliar Email from a Familiar Name: An email from [email protected] is most likely not from your principal. Reach out to the individual at their official MPS email or phone extension to confirm.

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  • First-Time Message from an Unfamiliar Sender: If you receive an email from an unfamiliar sender with a request for money or personal information, do not respond or comply. If they claim to represent a legitimate company or organization (Millville Public Schools), reach out to the company or organization directly.  

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  • Message Marked as "External": Our IT department has protections in place to help you. Always look for the yellow banner. This will tell you if the email is coming from outside of Millville Public Schools!

• What is in the message?
  • Generic Greeting: Is the message from your "supervisor", but they don't use your name? 

• • Spelling/Grammar Errors: Are there are a lot of errors in the message? Does it look like it's been copy-pasted or just badly written?

• • Strange Language/Tone: Is there something "not quite right" about the tone of the email? Does the language seem too casual or way over the top?

• • Request for Gift Cards or Money Transfer: Are you being asked to purchase gift cards or send money via app? Are they asking that you do it IMMEDIATELY?

• • Request for Confidential Information: Is the message asking for your social security number or banking information? Do you think a legitimate sender would ask for this by email?

• What is included?
  • Suspicious Links
  • Unexpected Attachments
  • Unfamiliar Account Information