By Arthur Moses Opio
As the month of October ends, world over, it is dubbed as the Cybersecurity awareness month.
We would be cheating staff and students if we do not share a thing or two about this important subject.
We trust that in the previous months, every communication and cyber tip shared on the mailing list and the social media platforms has been helpful.
The key thing about cybersecurity is that awareness has to be continuous, to keep users informed at all times.
Statistics
- According to Checkpoint, 97% of organizations are facing mobile threats from several attack vectors.
- According to Tessian, Phishing campaigns had increased more than any other type of threat.
- Incidents involving payment and invoice fraud increased by 112% between Q1 2020 and Q2 2020. It makes sense, then, that finance employees were among the most frequently targeted employees.
Most Targeted Industries
- Health Care
- Education
- Manufacturing
Most common types of malicious files attached to phishing emails
- Windows executables (74%)
- Script files (11%)
- Office documents (5%)
- Compressed archives (4%)
- PDF documents (2%)
- Java Files (2%)
- Batchfiles (2%)
- Shortcuts (2%)
- Android executables (>1%)
source(Tessian)
Latest Cyber Threats
- Over 10 MILLION users have been targeted with 151 malicious Android apps from the Google Play Store that tricked users into paying for premium subscription services without their knowledge or consent.
- Mozilla warns that two malicious Firefox add-ons installed by over 455,000 users prevent users from downloading security updates, accessing updated blocklists, and updating remotely configured content.
Preventing Phishing Attacks
- Review the email address of senders and look out for impersonations of trusted brands or people.
- Always inspect URLs in emails for legitimacy by hovering over them before clicking.
- Beware of URL redirects and pay attention to subtle difference in website content. Also look out for poor grammar.
- With Education sectors among the most targeted, it’s a no-brainer that we need to be alert since we are heavily involved in research.
Be cyber smart and play your part as DICTS does its duty of ensuring the core network is secure.
Photo by Dan Nelson on Unsplash