Email Phishing

Suffolk University stops over a half million phishing attempts, spam emails, and virus infected messages every day. All faculty and staff should be on the lookout for suspect messages and scams in order to protect their systems.

Email phishing is typically an email scam which tries to trick people into thinking a legitimate organization is requesting private information. These scams typically ask you to respond quickly, warning you of a sudden change to your account and requesting to supply and verify information that you still the service. These attempts often look identical to the service the email is mimicking common targets such as the University, your bank, ADP, EBay, and PayPal.

A few red flags of email phishing messages include:

  • a generic greeting
  • a warning of some sudden change in an account
  • Requiring you to verify personal or private information in order to still use the service

You can secure your email by following these best practices:

  • Never send passwords, bank account numbers, social security numbers or other private information in an email.
  • Avoid clicking links in emails, especially any that are requesting private information.
  • Be wary of any unexpected email attachments or links, even from people you know.
  • Never enter private or personal information into a popup window.
  • Pay attention to the URL (the web site address in your browsers address bar). Look for 'https://' and a lock icon in your browser address bar and confirm the web site address before entering any private information on a website. Malicious websites may look identical to a legitimate site, but the URL may use a variation in spelling.

To stay well-informed, all faculty and staff of Suffolk University should familiarize themselves with Suffolk’s official email phishing policy. If you think you have received a suspect email, do not respond in any way; just delete the message. If you are ever in doubt about the legitimacy of a potential phishing email, please call the University ITS Help Desk at 617-557-2000.