Online Safety Awareness: Phishing

Have you ever gotten an email promising something "too good to be true?" Or a scary email that claims the IRS is going to take all of your money if you don't click here now?

Just as we keep ourselves safe in the "real world," online safety is important too. You can do some simple things to keep your virtual world safe. This is the second in a series of five videos.

Transcript

Jared: (Description: white male wearing glasses and navy blue shirt with GTS logo)

You just saw that I’m wearing a mask. Why? Because out here in the real world, there’s a serious and dangerous pandemic. I wear the mask to protect myself and others. Now, what about the online world in the virtual space? How can I protect myself there?

GTS will be releasing video clips to the Gallaudet community. The goal of these video clips is to increase your awareness of cybersecurity. I invited three students from the IT program at Gallaudet to tell you about several cybersecurity threats and advise on what you can do to protect yourself on the Internet.

Now, let’s see what they have to share with you.

Samantha: (white female with long dark hair, wearing glasses and dark short-sleeved shirt)

Sometimes an email you receive will say you won a raffle and that you need to sign in to change or give your information. Those emails are fake and dishonest. They are not trying to help you but attempting to collect your credit card number or SSN [Social Security Number].

In Gmail, there is an option to report these emails as phishing to help these emails be automatically rejected for others. If you see emails that don’t seem honest, click and report them! If there are a lot of reports, Gmail will automatically send them to spam.

If you see an email asking for your personal information, don’t click on links in the email. Instead, go directly to the actual company’s website to make sure you are giving information to the correct place.