Phishing attacks come in email or text messages, usually as URLs or attachments. With schools moving to online learning, these attacks have become more frequent and even more sophisticated.
Even when you want to visit a reliable essay writing service website like EssayService.com for academic assistance, you risk clicking on a dangerous link instead.
In some cases, these attacks target specific individuals within the school network. This type of attack is known as spear phishing.
To protect your colleagues and the school’s online infrastructure from such malicious phishing attacks, follow these expert security tips.
Be Careful About the Links You Follow
According to Netwrix, over 60% of schools have faced phishing attacks, most of which came from malicious links. Sometimes, cybercriminals mask these emails as content from legitimate companies, offering unsolicited services and advice that unsuspecting users click on.
Let’s say you are expecting an email from a paper writing service about your recent research paper or essay. The criminal can ‘spoof’ the email to convince you to click on the link. And once you follow the link, the malware infects your system.
To avoid these attacks, always verify the links you follow before clicking on them. Check if the sending email matches the official address. If not, send the email to the spam folder without opening it — or report it to the mail service provider.
Educate Students and Teachers
Most students and faculty staff had to plunge themselves into the world of online learning without any proper training. As a result, they don’t have any idea how to stay safe online.
To ensure teachers and students employ the best remote learning practices, conduct orientation programs to teach them how to spot and prevent phishing attacks.
You should also instruct them not to follow any suspicious links, whether it is from an email or a message on Facebook.
Watch Out for a Suspicious Email
Another massive tell that you might be working with a phishing email is that the subject has an air of urgency. Some standard subject lines include:
- “URGENT COVID UPDATES”
- “DON’T MISS OUT!”
- “VERY IMPORTANT!!!”
To add to the air of urgency, some attackers might add a few “danger” or “urgency” emojis to force the recipient into action. So once you see such emails, always treat them with extra caution.
Hire Cybersecurity Experts
If you have a system like Moodle that handles students’ and teachers’ sensitive data, you might need the services of several cybersecurity experts to keep it safe.
For example, a pentester can ethically hack the system to spot possible vulnerabilities within it. From their findings, they can recommend preventative measures to keep the users safe.
Also, they can detect the sources of previous phishing attacks, which will help them recommend ways to identify these links before they infiltrate the system.
Other security experts that can boost your infrastructure’s security include:
- Information systems security manager;
- Security architect;
- Data security analyst;
- Systems security administrator;
- Network security engineer.
Avoid Insecure Sites
Phishing links often lead you to sites where you will need to enter your personal data. Other times some websites try to imitate legitimate sites in a bid to confuse visitors. So, always be extra cautious when visiting any site online.
Follow these guidelines:
- Make sure the domain name is correct. For instance, xyz.net might be a clone of the original xyz.com. And if you are not careful, you can go to the fake site.
- Only visit secure sites. Any official website will always have an SSL certificate. To find out if the site you visit is safe, check if it starts with “https” or “http” in the URL bar. If the website doesn’t begin with “https,” don’t use it.
- Make sure the site’s design and official logos are legit.
Stay Away from Pop-Up Ads
Pop-up ads are a menace to the overall online experience. Sometimes these ads appear on legitimate websites that pay little attention to personal security. Stay away from them. Even if the pop-up promises to give you millions to complete a survey, close it immediately.
Clicking on such ads will leave you vulnerable to malicious attacks — and this might compromise the security of the entire academic infrastructure.
Update Your System Regularly
Hackers evolve with the times by exploiting vulnerabilities in existing systems to attack the parent infrastructure. To combat these attacks, companies are constantly working on new updates to patch these loopholes.
According to Info Guard Security, over 95% of cyber attacks rely on outdated software to gain access to the system infrastructure.
If you don’t update your system, you become vulnerable to more attacks than usual. So, always turn on automatic updates to keep your system’s security firewalls up to date.
Invest in Anti-Phishing Tools
Relying on human competence to detect and prevent phishing attacks is a flawed strategy because most internet users lack the technical dexterity for such tasks. Besides, people in executive positions are often targets of highly sophisticated spear-phishing attacks.
Therefore, the best way to prevent phishing attacks is by using technological tools to detect and eliminate them before they happen. These tools will alert you when malicious content enters your network. Some will even help you place red flags to prevent future attacks from recurring domains.
Here are some reliable anti-phishing programs:
- Avast!
- Avira
- Egress Defend
- ESET Smart Security
- Google Safe Browsing
- Mozilla Thunderbird
- PhishTank SiteChecker
- ZoneAlarm
Although most of these tools are not free, they will save you the money and effort you would have spent to address the losses. To be on the safe side, only download these software programs from the official websites.
Conclusion
Phishing and spear-phishing attacks can compromise your system’s security and integrity. If you don’t employ measures to detect and curtail them, you expose every user within the network to cyberattacks. Spend enough time and resources educating students and teachers about safe browsing practices. And most importantly, use trusted antivirus and anti-phishing software to protect your systems from online phishing attacks.