Email Security

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Email Security Protection

• Cyber Security Month
• October 2006

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What are we going to cover?

• Phishing
• Spam
• Viruses Worms
• What is GU doing about this?
• Policies
• Resources

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Phishing

• Occurs when ID thieves trick people into
  providing their Social Security number, financial
  account numbers, PINs, mothers maiden name and
  other personal information by pretending to be
  someone they are not

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Phishing, cont

• What to look for
• Phishy emails
• Appear to be from legitimate retailer, bank,
  organization or govt. agency
• Sender asks to confirm your personal information
  for some reason (account is being closed, order
  has been placed in your name, your information
  has been lost)
• Links within emails that ask for your personal
  information
• Lure people to phony websites that look like the
  real site
• By following the instructions and entering
  personal information youll deliver it directly
  into the hands of the ID thieves

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Phishing Scam Sample

• Email message with a link to take you to a fake
  survey site

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Phishing Scam Sample

• Email message with link to take you to Pay Pal
  site. When the link is clicked the victim is
  taken to a legitimate looking Pay-Pal website

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Phishing Scam Sample

• Fake site

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Phishing Scam Sample

• Legitimate site

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Phishing, What to look for cont

• To check whether a message is legite, call the
  company directly or go to their website (use a
  search engine to find it)
• Pharming
• Virus or malicious program is secretly planted in
  your computer and hijacks your web browser
• You type in the legitimate address but youre
  taken to a fake copy of the site without
  realizing it

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Phishing, What to look for cont

• Pop Up Screens
• Never enter personal information in a pop up
  screen
• Phisher will direct you to the real companys
  website but an unauthorized screen created by the
  scammer will appear with blanks to provide your
  personal information
• Legite company, organization wont ask for
  personal info via a pop up screen
• Install pop up blocking software to help prevent
  this type of phishing

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Phishing, How to protect yourself cont

• Protect your PC with spam filters, anti-virus and
  anti-spyware software and a firewall and keep
  them up to date
• Spam filters help reduce the number of phishing
  emails you get
• Anti-virus scans incoming messages
• Anti-spyware looks for programs that have been
  installed on your computer and tracks your online
  activity without your knowledge
• Firewalls prevent hackers and unauthorized
  communication from entering your computer

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Phishing, How to protect yourself cont

• Look for programs that offer automatic updates
  and take advantage of free patches
• Only open attachments if youre expecting them
• Phishing can occur by phone too
• Verify the persons identity before providing any
  personal info (ask for persons name, name of
  agency, phone number, physical address)

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Spam

• Indiscriminately sent unsolicited, unwanted,
  irrelevant or inappropriate messages, especially
  commercial advertising in mass quantities
• Also know as junk mail
• Why is Spam a threat?
• Spam may contain worms, viruses, and other
  malicious code

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Spam cont

• CAN-SPAM Act of 2003
• Established requirements for those sending
  commercial email
• Ban on false or misleading header info
• No deceptive subject lines
• Requires an opt out method
• Opt out mechanism must process request for at
  least 30 days after you send commercial email
• Email must be identified as advertisement and
  include senders physical address
• Reporting Spam
• Forward to spam_at_uce.gov

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Spam cont

• Resources
• CAN SPAM Act see the FTCs CAN SPAM guide at
  http//www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspa
  m.htm
• FCC CAN SPAM pamphlet at http//www.fcc.gov/cgb/co
  nsumerfacts/canspam.html
• Reducing Spam
• Federal Trade Commissions guide at
  http//www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/busines
  s.htm

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Viruses and Worms

• Self replicating, malicious codes that attach to
  an application program or other executable system
  component and leave no obvious signs of their
  presence
• Can arrive via emails or downloads
• Can slow down your companys systems and
  productivity as you need to dedicate resources to
  remove it

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Viruses and Worms cont

• Other impacts
• Increased spam
• Denial of service
• Deleted files
• Allow remote access to your computer
• No particular way to identify that your computer
  has been infected
• Some may destroy files and shut down your
  computer
• Others may only subtly affect computer normal
  operations
• Anti-virus software may alert you that its found
  malicious code and may be able to clean it
  automatically

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Viruses and Worms cont

• What to do if infected
• Minimize the damage contact your IT dept
• For home computers disconnect your computer
  from the Internet
• Remove malicious code
• Update virus definitions for your anti-virus
  software
• Perform manual scan of entire system
• If software cant locate and remove code, you may
  need to reinstall your operating system
• NOTE Reinstalling or restoring your operating
  system typically erases all your files and
  additional software you have installed on your
  machine

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Viruses and Worms cont

• Resources
• National Cyber Alert System Tip Recovering from
  Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses at
  http//www.uscert.gov/cas/tips/ST05-006.html

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Whats GU doing?

• Barracuda firewall
• Blocks an average of 400 phishing types of email
  messages on a daily basis
• Blocks roughly 112 viruses
• Blocks roughly 36,000 spam emails
• Email server virus protection
• Blocks roughly 98 of viruses that are sent

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Barracuda Results 6/05-7/06
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Whats GU doing cont

• Your computer
• Each GU owned computer is installed with virus
  protection and a firewall
• Outlook has Spam detection rules built in that
  users can configure
• User awareness
• Be aware of hazards in order to protect yourself

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Policies

• Find them on the http//cybersecurity.gonzaga.edu
  website
• Employee Email Policy
• Prohibited Activities
• Sending SPAM, chain letters from a Gonzaga email
  account
• Unauthorized altering of the header of an email
  message to prevent the recipient from determining
  the actual sender of the email
• Sending email from another users account or
  falsifying sender information in any way

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Policies cont

• Using email for any activity that is unlawful or
  in violation of any Gonzaga policies
• Unauthorized disclosure or forwarding of
  information proprietary to the university or
  deemed confidential in nature or information that
  could be construed as a statement of official
  university policy, position, or attitude
• Mass Mailings
• Warnings and mass mailings about important
  technology issues must be approved by the
  Director of Central Computing or assigned
  designee
• Mass mailings to staff and faculty shall be
  approved by the Director of Public Relations or
  assigned designee
• Mass mailings to students shall be approved by
  the Vice President of Student Life or assigned
  designee

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Policies cont

• General Policy
• Using a reasonable amount of Gonzaga Universitys
  resources for personal emails is acceptable
• All email stored in the Deleted Items directory
  will be automatically purged (permanently deleted
  and unrecoverable) after a period of thirty (30)
  days. This includes email attachments stored in
  the Deleted Items directory
• Central Computing and Network Support Services
  (CCNSS) will employ methods to reduce the number
  of SPAM type email and viruses that are received
  by university recipients. CCNSS will attempt to
  ensure valid email is allowed, however, some
  false positives can be expected

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Policies cont

• Student Email Policy
• Students have the responsibility of accessing and
  reading their email messages in a timely fashion
  and maintaining their email box at a reasonable
  size. Zagmail users should move messages from
  their inbox and maintain their inbox at a size no
  greater than 25 megabytes
• The university reserves the right to purge email
  from accounts

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Resources

• Check out the new Cyber Security website at
  http//cybersecurity.gonzaga.edu
• Learn more about how to keep your computer secure
  at www.onguardonline.gov and www.staysafeonline.or
  g
• Info on how to put a fraud alert on your files
  at the credit reporting bureaus at
  www.consumer.gov/idtheft or 877-438-4338
• Report phishing at www.fraud.org or 800-876-7060

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Resources

• Check out the new Cyber Security website at
  http//cybersecurity.gonzaga.edu
• Learn more about how to keep your computer secure
  at www.onguardonline.gov and www.staysafeonline.or
  g
• Info on how to put a fraud alert on your files
  at the credit reporting bureaus at
  www.consumer.gov/idtheft or 877-438-4338
• Report phishing at www.fraud.org or 800-876-7060