In honor of National Cyber Security Awareness month, California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) is emphasizing the threat that active phishing poses to students. Phishing is an online method of compromising personal information such as usernames, passwords and credit card information through the disguise or reliable sources.
According to CSUMB’s website, other CSU campuses have already witnessed attempts of phishing involving students. Remember to never provide personal information through emails or text messages unless they are from an official CSUMB source, ending in “@csumb.edu” though Information Technology refrains from acquiring students’ personal information through email.
In most instances of phishing, several words will be misspelled, the thoughts will be incoherent and the source will be a suspicious email address. If you believe that you are a victim of phishing, report it to [email protected] immediately and do not open any links that they have provided, as it may welcome viruses onto your computer. A precaution that can easily be taken to avoid this is to install an antivirus software, which will also improve the performance of your computer overall.
If any questions arise regarding phishing or how to stay safe online, feel free to call the HelpDesk at 831-582-4357.