Cybersecurity Blog

Cyber Security Superhero of the week

Every day I encounter real cyber security superheros. These wonderful individuals report to abuse@mtroyal.ca, forward me an email, go out of their way to be cyber safe or let me know if they see colleagues struggling with being cyber safe. It’s these superheros who stop cyber attacks in their tracks and help keep all our data safe. Its these same superheros who I think need to be recognized for their truly heroic behavior.  Every week, I will be picking a different Cyber Security Superhero of the week and sharing their story.  Join me in congratulating them for their contribution to cyber safety.

Our first superhero of the week is Andrea Hennel!! She forwarded two very cleverly disguised phishing emails to abuse this week.  Here is the first one:

She spotted this one as a phish because she wasn’t expecting a refund and it was sent to her business email address, which the CRA doesn’t have access to.  Although you would think that if they were trying to entice you to click they would make the refund a little more substantial, say a few hundred instead of a measly $73.32.

This the second one she forwarded to abuse@mtroyal.ca:

This one is especially tricky as the attachment looks like a legitimate OneDrive document.  However, if you click the link to view the document you will be giving the criminals your OneDrive credentials instead of logging into your account.  When this email was sent David was off campus and it wasn’t unusual for Andrea to receive emails from him. Both of these factors made Andrea consider that the email might be legitimate.  However there was something that didn’t seem quite right about it, so she checked the sender’s email address.  Once she realized the email address was wrong, she reported it immediately.

Congratulations Andrea on taking your time with your emails and identifying these two as phishing. We know how very busy you are and appreciate that you still took the time to properly examine your emails before you decided to click. In recognition, Andrea takes home a certificate and a webcam cover.  Keep up the good work!!

Would you like to nominate someone for Cyber Security Superhero of the week? Complete the nomination form.  All students, staff and faculty are eligible.

 

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