With the rise in ransomware, which commonly uses phishing campaigns to gain unauthorized access to people’s computers, it has become especially important that we all become experts at accurately identifying phishing attempt e-mails. Some examples of recent ransomware attacks include:

• Howard University Cancels Classes after Ransomware Attack
• Hackers use Colonial pipeline ransomware news for phishing attack

The transition to Microsoft account management for all UM System campuses has given the S&T IT Security team the opportunity to use phishing email simulations. The simulations generate a fake email message that can be sent to any number of individuals and that recipients should interpret as a phishing email. The simulator can also monitor the email to see how the recipients respond.

The S&T IT department staff have already been through several simulations to see how well the IT staff are at identifying a phishing attempt. In the coming months, S&T IT will expand these simulations to the entire campus. We hope that the cybersecurity training that all staff and faculty should have completed by Sept. 17 will prove beneficial and help our campus to respond appropriately to the simulations.

If you suspect that an email is a phishing attempt, please report it by:

• creating an email to S&T IT Security at security@mst.edu and attaching the suspicious email.
• selecting the Report Message icon in the message ribbon of the email to report the message to Microsoft. Visit the report phishing emails page for complete instructions.