Happy reading week, York University! While this week's scam is similar to extortion scams, it has some differences. Let's dive into this particular type of scam which has seen an uptick in recent years: the prize scam. Preying mainly on seniors and other groups who may be not as technologically savvy, prize scams are straightforward. […]
Advisories & Alerts
Stay Secure- Extortion Scams (Part 2)
Welcome back! Just as family day weekend is starting, we're going to cover a couple other examples of extortion scams that exist online. If you'd like to read more, check out part 1! Denial of Service Attack: In this form of scam, scammers will flood a company's/user's website with requests, effectively shutting out visitors from the […]
Stay Secure- Extortion Scams (Part 1)
Happy Valentine's Day, York University! In continuation of the previous post about ransomware, we're going to summarize another couple of ways hackers may try to get your information. Extortion scams all work on the same basis: Scaring or tricking the victim into giving money or personal information to the hacker. Ransomware, as we've discussed, limits […]
Stay Secure- Ransomware
A popular type of scam, ransomware has been a prominent method of extortion throughout all internet history, and even some time before it. Ransomware is most often propagated by email and other methods of file transfer. Once a ransomware software is downloaded, most often in .Zip format, it will automatically install itself and encrypt the […]
Stay Secure- Wire Fraud
Hello York! Despite the freezing weather, hackers are still doing their best to breach the security of you and York University. Wire fraud is one of the ways hackers attempt to get at your personal information, and more specifically your wallet. The goal of wire fraud is to convince the target (namely, you) to […]
Information Security Notice: Gift Card Scams
York and other universities have seen an increase in gift card scams. In these scams, you may receive an email appearing to be from a coworker or someone you report to that urgently needs your help to do something involving a financial transaction, usually to purchase gift cards, such as iTunes, amazon cards, or others. […]
Social Media Privacy: Facebook
Online privacy has been an extremely important topic in recent years, and tech companies have responded to the cries for better privacy measures on social media. A stellar example of online privacy tools is Facebook's settings, which give you a surprising amount of control over what the public sees about you. Here are some of […]
Stay Secure- Tips For a Better Password (Part 2)
We're back, and we are here to give you some more ways in which to make a hacking-resistant password! 1. Avoid common phrases! Starting off this list is a somewhat obvious one. Using bible verses, movie quotes, and popular sayings will mean the password is easy to guess. While they may be relatively safe against […]
Gift card scam
York Information Security has received reports of a gift card scam circulating via email. In the gift card scam, the perpetrator pretends to be your supervisor or someone you know and asks that you purchase some Amazon gift cards. The email message may start out by saying, "I need you to pick up some Amazon […]
Stay Secure- Tips For a Better Password
New year, new semester. And with the new semester, it's a good time to update your password. Having a strong password is the key (no pun intended) to keeping all of your personal information safe. Here are a few tips on making your password easy to remember and hard to breach: 1. Longer Password= Better […]
