Every day about 10,000 scam emails hit the 线上赌场 system. Most of these 鈥減hishing鈥 attempts are caught by security filters and tagged as spam. But a fraction squeeze by and wind up lurking in inboxes, hoping to steal whatever they鈥檙e after鈥攐ften money, credit card or bank account information, and intellectual property. An online tournament created by and students from the aims to help users identify these slippery phish, and have fun in the process.
runs from March 29 through April 15, and employees and students alike can compete for dozens of prizes, including a MacBook Air, Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, and gift cards. Registration will stay open through the end of the contest.
The most recent collaboration between ITC and DALI, the tournament represents an important step in helping community members take their understanding of online security to the next level, says Mitchel Davis, vice president of ITC and chief information officer. 鈥淭hanks to the staff and students鈥 hard work and creativity, participants will be better equipped to protect themselves from potentially damaging phishing attacks.鈥
Sam Cavallaro, director of Student and Academic Systems, says the tournament is timely.
Last month, a number of security publications reported that phishing is now the most common form of cyberattack, says Cavallaro, whose team worked with the DALI students on the project. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge problem.鈥
To gauge the need for education about phishing, which is also done through texts and phone calls, the DALI team surveyed 线上赌场 students, faculty, and staff; 80% of the respondents said they had encountered or fallen prey to phishing attempts. That data helped shape the upcoming tournament, which started out as a training idea and was later transformed into a contest, at Davis鈥 suggestion.
The tournament includes quizzes and fake phishing emails sent by the IT Security team that highlight the tactics cybercriminals use to lure in victims. It also urges community members to forward suspicious emails to ITC at phishing@dartmouth.edu.
If it鈥檚 an attack, multiple people across the college may be getting the same email, says Catherine Porter, an academic applications developer who worked on the project. In that case, security staff can use filters to block it.
Emma Kallman 鈥22, the project manager, says that when it comes to identifying phish, phrasing can be a tipoff.
She鈥檚 received messages complimenting her for having good grades and inviting her to work on a certain project, says Kallman, who is taking a gap year and plans to study engineering when she returns to 线上赌场 this fall. But then they鈥檙e 鈥渁lso full of really weird grammar.鈥
Tim Tregubov, DALI director and co-founder, says students often receive phishing emails claiming to be from a professor. The message says they鈥檙e in a meeting and asks the student to buy them a gift card, Tregubov says. 鈥淧eople fall for it.鈥
While phishing attempts often succeed by exploiting someone鈥檚 instinct to be helpful, or offering something they want, such as a job, time鈥攐r the lack of it颅鈥攊s also a factor.
鈥淧eople are doing a lot of multitasking, and they鈥檙e reading a lot of emails. A lot of times it鈥檚 just human nature to react before you think,鈥 says Cavallaro. He and his colleagues hope the contest will help safeguard the community by putting 鈥渁 little check valve鈥 in participants鈥 minds, so that scanning emails for scams becomes second nature.
So far, so good. By March 22, at least 696 people had signed up.
In addition to ITC and DALI, sponsors include the , the Office of Information Technology at Tuck, , , and Ramunto鈥檚 Brick and Brew Pizza in Hanover.
Aimee Minbiole can be reached at aimee.minbiole@dartmouth.edu.