Defeating Phishing and Other Deceptive Contacts

• Phishing, Spear phishing, and AI-generated scams.
• Malware, ransomware attacks, and financial scams.
• Social engineering and impersonation.
• The impact of being victimized.
• Credential theft and spoofing techniques.
• Contacts, requests, or reported events where caution (and verification) is warranted.
• Passwords, password management, and other login best practices.
• Reaching out to the IT support team if in doubt and following IT policies at all times.
• Applications/executable files and the variety of ways that these files may be encountered by the end user.
• Malicious websites, zip files that hide applications, external USB drives, and other common attack vectors.
• What assets cyber-criminals most wish to target and why.

Essential Cyber Defenses for the End User

• Passwords, password management, and other login best practices.
• Maintaining optimal system updates and security settings.
• Reaching out to the IT support team if in doubt and following IT policies at all times.
• How to mitigate travel risks, including wi-fi network threats.
• Applications/executable files and the variety of ways that these files may be encountered by the end user.
• Malicious websites, zip files that hide applications, and other common attack vectors.
• Physical security and thinking proactively about unauthorized physical access to devices.
• What assets cyber-criminals most wish to target and why.
• Preventing cross-contamination between a professional world and a personal one.
• Having a mindset that continuously assesses the value of what one can access – both in terms of worth to one's organization and worth to competitors or criminals.
• Thinking creatively about potential threats that may not have been encountered — thinking “What if?”