By: Sydney Davis
FAYETTEVILLE, AR — October is National Cyber Security Week. As we close out this month, it is important for students to know how to protect themselves against phishing.
Phishing is an attempt to get passwords, credit card details or other personal information by emails appearing to be from a trustworthy business or institution.
According Federal Trade Commission website, the FBI’s internet crime complaint center reported that people lost $30 million to phishing schemes in one year. This is the equivalent of paying the tuition of over 1200 out-of-state students at the University of Arkansas. Furthermore, If you used this money to pay for in-state tuition, you could pay for the tuition of almost 4000 students.
Signs of phishing include emails or messages looking like trustworthy company, telling a story to encourage you to click other links, and emails or messages beginning with generic greetings.
Felecia S. Saine, the Associate Athletic Director for the university, says she had a firsthand encounter with phishing. As a result, she lost $300. In her case, she was lucky enough to have her money returned to her, but she advises students to be quick in recognizing strange activity. “Make sure that you check your banking information regularly, report it to your bank, and then make sure that you file a police report. You don’t want it to lead to identity theft,” said Saine.
Other ways you can protect yourself against phishing include using security software on your computer, setting auto-software updates on your phone, and protecting accounts by using multi-factor authentication.
You can also take action if you feel you have been a victim of phishing by changing your password immediately at password.uark.edu, contacting the IT help desk, and contacting users you feel have an email that’s been compromised.