Kennesaw State’s Office of Cybersecurity launched a new service to catalog known phishing attempts against students, faculty and staff in the hopes of preventing future cybersecurity threats.
The new service, called the “phish market,” was launched Friday, March 2, on KSU’s cybersecurity page and contains tips to avoid being a victim of phishing, as well as a tab to report suspicious emails.
According to the site, “Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.”
The phish market contains a list of all known phishing attempts and suspicious emails that have been sent to students in the past. Most claim to be support for students’ banks and ask for sign-in information. Others go as far as sending anonymous invoices that ask for payment within three days.
All emails on the list are classified by the Office of Cybersecurity as malicious phishing attempts, and the list is updated daily.
Chris Dehner, assistant director of the office of cybersecurity, said that IT services are not at a level where phishing attempts can be sorted out of the emails that are important.
“Ultimately, training, awareness and good judgment are the best methods of prevention,” Dehner said.
The website also lists ways to prevent phishing attempts. The list includes checking the full email address, avoiding strangely-worded emails and hovering over the link provided to see if it will lead to a reputable site.
Students are encouraged to forward any suspicious emails to the university at abuse@kennesaw.edu.
