As thousands of freshmen move into their dorms for the first time , there are plenty of thoughts rushing through their minds : their first time away from home , what cringey nickname they 're gon na try to make a thing , if there are any parties before orientation kicks off . One thing that probably is n't on their minds is whether they 're going to get hacked . But that 's all Carnegie Mellon University 's IT department thinks about . Back-to-school season means hordes of vulnerable computers arriving on campus . The beginning of the semester is the most vulnerable time for a campus network , and every year , with new students coming in , schools have to make sure everything runs smoothly . Carnegie Mellon 's network gets hit with 1,000 attacks a minute -- and that 's on a normal day . Cybersecurity is an increasingly important aspect of our everyday lives , with technology playing a massive role in nearly everything we do . Universities have been vulnerable to attacks Attack.Databreach in the past , with cybercriminals stealing Attack.Databreach student and faculty databases and hackers vandalizing university websites . Students are often targets for hackers , even before they 're officially enrolled . Considering how much money flows into a university from tuition costs , along with paying for room and board , criminals are looking to cash in on weak campus cybersecurity . A bonus for hackers : Admissions offices often hold data with private information like student Social Security numbers and addresses , as well as their families ' data from financial aid applications . Phishing Attack.Phishing happens when hackers steal Attack.Databreach your passwords by sending Attack.Phishing you links to fake websites that look like Attack.Phishing the real deal . It 's how Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee during the presidential election , and it 's a popular attack to use on universities as well . The latest warning , sent Monday , called out malware hidden in a document pretending to be Attack.Phishing from Syracuse University 's chancellor . Digging through my old emails , I found about 20 phishing Attack.Phishing warnings that had gone out during the four years I 'd been there . Syracuse declined to comment on phishing attacks Attack.Phishing against the school , but in a 2016 blog post , it said the attacks were `` getting more frequent , cunning and malicious . '' The school is not alone . Duo Security , which protects more than 400 campuses , found that 70 percent of universities in the UK have fallen victim to phishing attacks Attack.Phishing . Syracuse , which uses Duo Security , fights phishing attacks Attack.Phishing with two-factor authentication , which requires a second form of identity verification , like a code sent to your phone . But it just rolled out the feature last year . Kendra Cooley , a security analyst at Duo Security , pointed out that students are more likely to fall for phishing attacks Attack.Phishing because they have n't been exposed to them as frequently as working adults have . Also , cybercriminals know how to target young minds . `` You see a lot of click-bait phishing messages like celebrity gossip or free travel , '' Cooley said . All students at Carnegie Mellon are required to take a tech literacy course , in which cybersecurity is a focus , said Mary Ann Blair , the school 's chief information security officer . The school also runs monthly phishing campaigns Attack.Phishing : If a student or faculty member falls Attack.Phishing for the friendly trap Attack.Phishing , they 're redirected to a training opportunity . When your network is being hit with at least two phishing attempts Attack.Phishing a day , Blair said , it 's a crucial precaution to keep students on guard . `` It 's just constantly jiggling the doorknobs to see if they 're unlocked , '' Blair said . `` A lot of it is automated attacks . '' It 's not just the thousands of new students that have university IT departments bracing for impact , it 's also their gadgets . `` All these kids are coming on campus , and you do n't know the security level of their devices , and you ca n't manage it , because it 's theirs , '' said Dennis Borin , a senior solutions architect at security company EfficientIP . A lot of university IT teams have their hands tied because they ca n't individually go to every student and scan all their computers . Borin 's company protects up to 75 campuses across the United States , and it 's always crunch time at the beginning of the semester . `` If I was on campus , I would n't let anybody touch my device , '' Borin said . `` So if somebody has malware on their device , how do you protect against an issue like that ? '' Instead of going through every single student , Borin said , his company just casts a wide net over the web traffic . If there 's any suspicious activity coming from a specific device , they 're able to send warnings to the student and kick him or her off the network when necessary . Keeping school networks safe is important for ensuring student life runs smoothly . A university that had only two people on its team reached out to EfficientIP after it suffered an attack . All of the school 's web services were down for an entire week while recovering from the attack , Borin said . Scam artists love to take advantage of timing , and the back-to-school season is a great opportunity for them . There was an influx of fake ransomware protection apps when WannaCry hit Attack.Ransom , as well as a spike in phony Pokemon Go apps stuffed with malware during the height of the game 's popularity . If there 's a massive event going on , you can bet people are flooding the market with phony apps to trick Attack.Phishing victims into downloading viruses . A quick search for `` back to school apps '' in August found 1,182 apps that were blacklisted for containing malware or spyware , according to security firm RiskIQ . Researchers from the company scanned 120 mobile app stores , including the Google Play store , which had more than 300 blacklisted apps . They found apps for back-to-school tools ; themes and wallpapers for your device ; and some apps that promised to help you `` cheat on your exams . '' Though most of the blacklisted apps are poorly made games , others pretend to help you be a better student . Other warning signs to watch out for when it comes to sketchy apps are poorly written reviews and developers using public domain emails for contacts , Risk IQ said . For any educational apps , like Blackboard Learn , you should always check the sources and look for the official versions . New students coming to school have enough to worry about . Let 's hope a crash course in cybersecurity is enough to ensure they make it to graduation without getting hit by hacks .

It ’ s tax season , and that means con artists and scammers are out in full force trying to capitalize on people ’ s financial anxieties . The IRS puts out strong warnings each year—often republishing its “ ’ Dirty Dozen ’ list of tax scams ” several times between January and April . This year , phishing schemes Attack.Phishing —in which scammers send Attack.Phishing emails pretending to be Attack.Phishing from the IRS in order to trick Attack.Phishing people into divulging sensitive information—topped the list . “ We urge taxpayers to watch out for these tricky and dangerous schemes , ” acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter said in a March 5 warning to consumers . “ Phishing Attack.Phishing and other scams on the ‘ Dirty Dozen ’ list can trap Attack.Phishing unsuspecting taxpayers . Being cautious and taking basic security steps can help protect people and their sensitive tax and financial data. ” Threat researchers at Zscaler published a blog on March 15 outlining four new phishing schemes Attack.Phishing they identified during this tax season , most of which used fake IRS websites to steal taxpayers ’ information . “ Cybercriminals have long used social engineering and phishing techniques to lure Attack.Phishing unsuspecting users into giving away private information , ” the researchers wrote . “ They track current trends and events to make their attacks more effective , and tax season offers a rich opportunity for attackers to disguise themselves as Attack.Phishing well-known brands and even government agencies in an effort to exploit users. ” This tendency is on display with the “ chalbhai ” phishing attack Attack.Phishing , which uses a spoof of an outdated IRS form to trick Attack.Phishing users into giving up their tax identification information , which can then be used to file false returns . While studying this campaign , researchers noticed the term “ chalbhai ” used in the source code . “ We have typically seen this tag associated with phishing pages that look like Attack.Phishing Microsoft Office 365 , Apple ID , Dropbox or DocuSign , ” Zscaler wrote . “ This is a good example of criminals adapting their phishing content to reflect current trends , ” i.e. , tax season . Another similar scheme directed users to a fake IRS page for unlocking expired passwords . Researchers noted this campaign was particularly tricky , as users were redirected Attack.Phishing to a legitimate IRS page after giving up their information . “ With this page , ” they wrote , “ the attacker is attempting to prevent user suspicion by redirecting the user from this phishing page to a legitimate e-policy statement hosted on the actual IRS page… At this point , the victims believe they have completed the account unlock process and they proceed to log in on the legitimate page unaware that their information has been stolen. ” Researchers also found similar tactics used to get taxpayers ’ logins for tax preparer sites like TurboTax . In a fourth example , Zscaler researchers found an encrypted phishing page designed to mask their ill-intent from security measures . After a user downloads the page , it is decrypted within the browser , skirting some security checks . In all these examples , users could have avoided the scam by double-checking the URL in the browser , which all included additional characters before the .gov domain , indicating users were not actually at an official IRS site .