Coronavirus Response

  • Home
  • A-Z List
  • About
    • About the NCC
    • Connectional Table
    • Staff
  • Calendar
    • Events
    • Google Calendar
    • Past Events
  • Churches
  • Contact
    • Find Us
  • Districts
    • District Office
    • Beacon
    • Capital
    • Corridor
    • Fairway
    • Gateway
    • Harbor
    • Heritage
    • Sound
  • Employment
  • Search

NC Conference

Healthy Congregations and Effective Leaders in Every Place Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World

  • Discipleship
    Developing Disciples
    • Christian Formation
      • Children
      • Church & Society
      • College
      • Differently Abled Persons
      • Educational Ministries
      • Older Adults
      • Status & Role of Women
      • Young Adults
      • Youth
    • Church Revitalization
      • Coaching
      • Disciple Making Way
      • Evangelism
      • Grants
      • MissionInsite
      • Real Discipleship Survey
      • Shift
      • Spiritual Life
    • From the Bishop
      • Bishop’s Bookshelf
      • Bishop’s Sermons
      • Church Transformation
      • Conflict Transformation
      • Connections
      • Discipleship & Learning Plan
    • Multicultural
      • Asian
      • Hispanic/Latino
      • Native American
      • Strengthening the Black Church
    • Stewardship
      • Apportionments
      • District Remittances
      • Financial Discipleship
      • Grants
      • Insurance
      • Mission & Service
      • Pension
      • Treasurer Training
  • Leadership
    Strengthening Leaders
    • Bishop’s Office
      • Appointment Book
      • Bishop’s Sermons
      • Church Transformation
      • Conflict Transformation
      • Connections
      • Discipleship & Learning Plan
    • Ministerial Relations
      • Board of Ordained Ministry
      • Called to Ministry?
      • Extension Ministries
    • Board of Laity
      • Certified Lay Minister
      • Lay Servant Ministries
      • Local Church Lay Leaders
      • United Methodist Men
      • United Methodist Women
      • United Methodist Youth
    • New Faith Comm.
      • Called to Plant?
      • New Room Society
      • Our Communities
    • Conference Offices
      • Center for Leadership Excellence
      • Christian Formation
      • Communications
      • Conference Secretary
      • Connectional Ministries
      • Information Technology
      • Multicultural Ministries
      • Outreach Ministry
      • Treasurer’s Office
  • Service
    Ministering To The World
    • Local Outreach
      • Church Construction
      • Church Loans
      • Restorative Justice and Mercy
      • Disciple Bible Outreach
      • NCC UMVIM
      • Seed Funds
      • Mission Projects
        • Health Ministry
    • Global Outreach
      • Imagine No Malaria
      • Love for Liberia
      • Missionaries
      • Project AGAPE
      • Sierra Leone: Mission of Hope
      • ZOE
    • Disaster Ministries
      • Donate to Storm Response
      • Hurricane Florence
      • MERCI
      • Response Plan
      • Response Team
      • UMCOR Kits
    • Giving
      • Advance/Rainbow Covenant
      • Apportionments
      • Give to Storm Response
      • Mission & Service
      • The Gary Wayne Locklear Mission Endowment
      • New Room Society
      • Special Sundays
    • Ministry Partners
      • Camps & Retreats
      • Partners In Ministry
      • Robeson Co. Church & CC
      • UMF
  • Resources
    Supporting Ministry
    • Conferences
      • Annual Conference 2019
      • Annual Conference 2020
      • Charge Conference 2020
      • General Conference
      • Pilgrimage
      • SEJ Conference 2016
    • Media Center
      • Catalog
      • Labyrinth
      • Ministry Tools
      • Online Resources
      • Weekly Newsletter
    • Online Resources
      • Archives & History
      • Church Lookup
      • Online Data Collection
      • Online Learning
      • Pastor Lookup
      • Podcasts (NCCUMC.FM)
      • Ramus: Web Hosting
      • Video (Vimeo)
    • Publications
      • Advent 2020
      • Appointment Book
      • Bible Study
      • Conference Directory
      • Conference Journal
      • Every Day Grace
      • Lenten Reflections
      • Mission & Service
    • From UMC.org
      • Agencies
      • Communications
      • Discipleship
      • Finance & Administration
      • Global Ministries
      • Graphics Library
      • Relief
      • Status & Role of Women
  • Information Technology
  • Report Issues
  • FAQ
  • Webinars
  • Heartbleed

Don’t Click That Link

February 5, 2015 Leave a Comment

Yesterday some of you may have received a message that looked like this:

Don't click this link!

Don’t click this link!

This message was inadvertently sent after a staff member accidentally clicked a link in a malicious email message. It’s amazing how far our social networks extend. Hundreds of people received this message – all around the world! If any of these recipients thought this was a legitimate message and clicked the link, the entire process restarted, affecting everyone in their contact list.

Why did we fall for this?

This type of compromise is called a Phishing Attack. This is a easy thing to fall for. The initial message almost looks legitimate. If we are quickly moving through an inbox full of email anyone can miss it and click one bad link. The malicious email is most likely written in a way that tricks us into disclosing personal information (passwords, bank information, etc.).

How can we keep it from happening?

There are a few key points we should consider:

  • Don’t trust your friends – Just because an email comes from someone you know doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s legitimate. It is trivially easy to send an email and pretend that it is actually coming from someone else.
  • What are they saying in the message? Is it something completely different than what they normally send? Does it involve clicking a link and entering in a password? Why would they need a password to share something with you?
  • It is generally a bad idea to click a link in an email asking for login information. If you need to transmit information across the internet to a company browse directly to their website first to log into their system. Don’t click a link unless you are expecting it (password reset, normal monthly statement, etc.).
  • If you do click on a link take a few moments to carefully inspect the website. Does it look legitimate? Is the website address in the address bar legitimate?
  • Read this article on Microsoft’s Security Center: What is Phishing?

I clicked the link! What do I do now?

Clicking the link doesn’t necessarily mean that your computer is infected. If you closed the website without entering any information you should be ok. If you did enter a username and password then you need to consider the following:

  • What username/password did I use?
  • What system uses that password?
  • Do I use that password in multiple places?

You should reset the password immediately for any account uses the compromised password. If you use the same password (or same few passwords) everywhere then you should change them immediately wherever they are used. This is very important!

Make sure that you are running an up to date Antivirus program. Run a full scan of your computer. Make sure that the scan comes up clean. If your antivirus software is out of date then consider running Housecall from Trend Micro. Once that scan completes update your Antivirus software.

Resources

  • Tips from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
  • How to avoid Phishing Scams (Sophos)
  • 4 Security Tips (PC World)
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Filed Under: E-mail Tagged With: attack, email, google apps, malware, phishing, Security

IT documentation

  • DownDetector
  • Google Apps Help
  • Microsoft Office 2010 E-books
  • Microsoft Office 2013 & 2010 Training

NC Conference of The United Methodist Church · 700 Waterfield Ridge Place · Garner, NC 27529
Phone: 919.779.6115 · Toll-free: 800.849.4433 · Fax: 919.773.2308

Copyright © 2021 · Privacy Policy · Powered by WordPress · Site Admin

  • e
  • k