Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2017: Using multi-factor authentication to protect against identity theft
Oct. 18, 2017—Picture a hacker sitting at the log-in screen moments away from accessing your bank account information. Due to a successful targeted phishing attack, the hacker has successfully obtained your credentials and/or security questions necessary to gain access to your account. He hopes that when he logs in, he’ll be able to transfer funds to any...
Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2017: Tips to protect yourself from phishing
Oct. 11, 2017—Phishing is an attempt at identity theft using email and fraudulent websites to obtain personal data, such as account names, passwords, social security numbers, credit card numbers or other personal identification information. Criminals and/or hackers will send emails to lists of email addresses they have either found or stolen online. These emails can come from...
Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2016: Can you spot a malicious or compromised site?
Oct. 27, 2016—Malicious and compromised websites are typically fake sites that resemble their legitimate counterparts down to every detail—except for the URL. Users rarely intend to stumble upon such a site but find themselves here by either mistyping a URL or browsing aimlessly. The term used for these nearly legitimate URLs is known as “typosquatting.” Typosquatting sites...
Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2016: 8 ways to protect yourself from identity theft
Oct. 19, 2016—Identity theft has progressively become a serious problem that claims innocent bystanders as victims every day. Preventing identity theft begins with understanding the basics of managing your personal information carefully and sensibly. By following these eight precautions, you can help protect your identity and personal information: Be careful saving and storing information on your computer....
Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2016: The 411 on ransomware
Oct. 12, 2016—Ransomware is a type of malware that is frequently delivered through phishing emails to an end user. Today, most variants of ransomware are designed to encrypt files on the infected system and network. This type of ransomware is called crypto-ransomware. Other variants have been known to erase files. Once blocking access to the system is...
Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2016: Tips to protect yourself from phishing
Oct. 5, 2016—Phishing is an attempt at identity theft using email and fraudulent websites in order to obtain personal data, such as account names, passwords, social security numbers, credit card numbers or other personal identification information. Criminals will send emails to lists of email addresses they have either found or stolen online. These emails can come from...
Case Study 6: Creating a Secure Password
Oct. 26, 2015—This is the sixth and final case study to be released during October for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Passwords are considered one of the weakest points that hackers use to infiltrate an organization and begin stealing valuable information. The news about the Ashley Madison breach revealed some startling information about the passwords that people used...
Case Study 5: Practice Safe Web Browsing to Avoid Ransomware
Oct. 19, 2015—This is the fifth of a series of case studies to be released during October for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Vanderbilt IT will publish new case studies Mondays and Thursdays throughout the month. One of the latest threats in the cyber world is the use of ransomware. Ransomware is defined as a type of malware...
Case Study 4: USB Devices As Sources of Malware
Oct. 15, 2015—This is the fourth of a series of case studies to be released during October for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Vanderbilt IT will publish new case studies Mondays and Thursdays throughout the month. Drive-by downloads. Spear phishing. Buffer overflows. Clickjacking. While there are countless ways for malware from the Internet to infect you, you can...
Case Study 3: The Dangers of Social Media & Keeping Kids Safe Online
Oct. 12, 2015—This is the third of a series of case studies to be released during October for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Vanderbilt IT will publish new case studies Mondays and Thursdays throughout the month. An estimated 80 percent of teens online use some form of social media and, in doing so, share more information about themselves...