Cybersecurity Blog

What is a phish bowl and why you should care – 02/27/20

 

The MRU community is made up of a diverse group of people. Some of you just like to forward suspicious emails to abuse@mtroyal.ca without really doing much investigation on your own. Others like to make a game out of looking for phishing red flags.  While still others follow email processing guidelines, just like I have asked.  Thanks to all of you, my job is never dull.

That said, we thought it would be a good idea to give all of you one more tool to help with the challenging job of identifying phishing emails.  IT Services is proud to announce the launch of the MRU Phish Bowl. The Phish Bowl contains a collection of  all the phishing emails that we have received over the past few years.  When you receive an email in your inbox and you aren’t quite sure if it is malicious, you can now search the Phish Bowl for it. If the exact email or a very similar one is posted then you know it is malicious and you can simply delete it.

Each post in the Phish Bowl shows you what the email looks like, points out the red flags and lets you know how to deal with similar emails in the future. Not only is it informative but it is also educational.

If an email doesn’t appear in the Phish Bowl, it doesn’t mean that the email is legitimate. You will still have to use the other strategies that you have been implementing to determine if it is malicious. The Phish Bowl is only an additional tool, not a replacement for your current vigilance.

The Phish Bowl is also helpful for those of you who are not sure if they should forward an email to abuse@mtroyal.ca or not.  If you do a search and find the email already listed, you know there is no need to report it. If it isn’t, then you know you may have a new nasty that needs to be reported.

We will be updating the Phish Bowl as new reports come in.  You can access it here, or from the MRU Cybersecurity Hub at mru.ca/cybersecurity. Look for the Phish Bowl link in the section titled Stay Informed.

 

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