K-State has now had at least 116 people reply to spear phishing scam e-mails since January 2008 and divulge their eID password to criminals. It is imperative that people learn to recognize scams to protect themselves and the K-State information entrusted to their care.
SonicWALL has produced an excellent 10-question “Phishing and Spam IQ Quiz” to help people learn how to differentiate between scams and legitimate e-mails. The quiz displays 10 different e-mails and has you decide whether each is legitimate or a phishing scam. At the end, it compares your answers to the correct ones and provides an explanation for each e-mail message.
The explanations are particularly instructive. Here are two examples:
Now you can answer at least two out of the 10 correctly!
I’ve said many times that you, the user, are a critical part of K-State’s IT security defenses. Please take the time to test your ability to recognize scams and go through ALL the explanations so you don’t become the 117th K-Stater to give up their eID password, or add to the estimated $3.6 billion lost annually by victims of phishing scams (see “Phishing Facts” on the Phishing and Spam IQ Quiz webpage).
