{"138631":{"#nid":"138631","#data":{"type":"news","title":"OIT Uses Fake Phishing Emails to Educate Campus","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EYou\u2019ve probably seen the emails urging you to change your account settings. But have you ever wondered if it is a real email or a scam trying to get your information?\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf you\u2019ve felt this way, you\u2019re not alone. In 2011, 165 Georgia Tech accounts were compromised by users providing their information to fraudulent messages.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s why the Office of Information Technology (OIT)\u2019s information security team has come up with a creative way to educate the campus community.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOIT is partnering with our units at Tech to educate faculty and staff about scam emails that seek to capture your personal information,\u201d said Jason Belford, principal information security engineer. \u201cThe information we\u2019re sharing can be helpful to people when it comes to both their professional and personal email accounts.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen a unit volunteers to participate in the exercise, representatives from the unit and information security work together to create a list of recipients for a fake phishing email. \u003Cbr \/\u003EIf a person responds to the email with their username and password, he or she receives an immediate message to let them know that had the email been an actual phishing attempt, \u201cbad guys\u201d would have the employee\u2019s account information, Belford added. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you respond to the fake email and receive our response message, don\u2019t worry \u2014 you won\u2019t get in trouble,\u201d Belford said. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to reach out to people who are confused about which emails are legitimate and which emails aren\u2019t before it\u2019s too late.\u201d \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFollowing the email exercise, information security also conducts a 15-minute training session with the unit\u2019s faculty and staff that provides tools to help distinguish legitimate messages from phishing scams. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe training has been very effective,\u201d Belford said. \u201cAfter training one particular unit, I even received a call about a phishing message a person had received. He was the first one to let us know and helped prevent others from possibly falling for it.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo participate in this program, email \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:ask.infosec@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eask.infosec@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EYou\u2019ve probably seen the emails urging you to change your account settings. But have you ever wondered if it is a real email or a scam trying to get your information?\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"You\u2019ve probably seen the emails urging you to change your account settings. But have you ever wondered if it is a real email or a scam trying to get your information?"}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2012-07-03 10:16:14","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:29","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-07-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.oit.gatech.edu\/","title":"Office of Information Technology (OIT)"}],"groups":[{"id":"1259","name":"Whistle"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"8119","name":"email"},{"id":"37611","name":"email scams"},{"id":"2678","name":"information security"},{"id":"9299","name":"Office of Information Technology"},{"id":"4112","name":"oit"},{"id":"8111","name":"phishing"},{"id":"37621","name":"phishing scams"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:infosec@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EOIT Information Security\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}