Apart from the heat, Tuesday morning also brought us phish, received by around 700 recipients. This phish has two subjects either ‘Email Update’ or “Urgent Update’.
Signs that make this email a phish:
1. Weird sender name ‘HelpDesk Admin CA’, this title doesn’t make sense and the way it is formatted is phishy.
2. Sender email is not internal.
3. Scary and urgency tactic, stating that system update detected anomalous activity and a virus, so verify account within 24 hrs.
4. Vague signature ‘Administrative assistance’.
5. Big red signal, hovering over the link reveals that it is not a UVic domain link. Your email is hosted on UVic domain then how putting your credentials on an external website will help in verifying your account?
Always think what would the email look like if it were to be legitimate. Who the sender would be, what would be the sender’s email, what would their signature be, how would they address you, or would the link be UVic domain or an external entity. These simple tricks can help you detect phishing emails. Whenever in doubt, rather than clicking on links, reach out to help desk for confirmation.