During this past week, our Barrington 220 colleague Bill received a phone call from a number that looked exactly like our tech support extension. The gentleman on the other end of the line asked Bill to work with him in changing his network password. Bill later realized that his password was never changed and that he had provided his current Google password information to a total stranger.
Not to be outdone, Marty was surfing the web one night and came across the absolute best chocolate lover’s website which asked him for a bit of personal information and an email address in exchange for some tasty samples sent his way. The next day he received an email that he thought was from another staff member. The email message read: “I share you special document. Click here.” Marty couldn’t help himself (he never can). He clicked on the link that brought him to a website halfway around the world. He then entered his Google username and password to receive the very special document. They didn’t even spell Google correctly, but that didn’t stop Marty! Twenty minutes later, almost all staff members at Barrington 220 recieved the same email message, only this time it was coming from Marty’s email account.
Then there is Mary! Mary is always so kind and helpful, so when she found the flash drive in the school parking lot, she stuck it in a PC. She was determined to try and find the owner of the “lost” drive so that she could return it to them. Thankfully the anti-virus on that PC had just received updates an hour before, rendering that potential network attack useless.
The names and stories here are fictitious here, but the stories are not far from the truth. Data breaches at Barrington 220 are most likely going to happen by deception and trickery. This past month, many a Barrington 220 staff member fell victim to some of this trickery and deception delivered via several email messages.
This stuff is keeping me awake at night! Can we discuss some ideas on preventing these problems over a cup of Starbucks? Decaf will do!
Please review this information on Phishing attacks:
https://drive.google.com/a/bsd220.org/file/d/0B536VoS8aCPpbGtobFdQS1dybTQ/view?usp=sharing
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