Fight phishing: Ruin a cyber criminal's day!
Cyber Security Awareness Month (Cyber Month) is an internationally recognized campaign held each October to help the public learn more about the importance of cyber security. This campaign helps Canadians stay secure online by teaching them simple steps to protect themselves and their devices. This year, we’re focusing on ruining cyber criminals’ days by teaching Canadians how to fight back against phishing scams.
Phishing is a cyber criminal’s attempt to get sensitive information by pretending to be a legitimate sender like a bank or a government organization. Phishing is the fourth most common scam in Canada. Each week, we’ll highlight different aspects of phishing scams to help Canadians prepare themselves against, or recover from, all types of phishing.
Week 1: You got phished
October 3-7
Even the savviest tech expert can fall for a phishing attempt. This week, we’ll focus on actionable steps to take to recover from a phishing attack with topics including:
- How to tell if you have been phished
- Actionable steps to recover from a phishing attempt, such as:
- securing affected accounts
- setting up anti-virus software and automatic software updates
- data recovery and backup
- Reporting the scam
Week 2: Where, why and how it happens
October 10-14
The more you know about phishing, the easier it is to spot. This week, we’ll educate Canadians about what phishing is and where it happens, the motivation behind cyber threats and how it works. We’ll cover topics including:
- The different types of phishing (email, phone, online shopping, gaming, social media and direct messages)
- Phishing trends (banking, romance scams, event-based scams)
- How social engineering works
- Malware and ransomware
Week 3: Prevention
October 17-21
Preventing a phishing scam is easier than dealing with one. This week, we’ll teach Canadians how to ruin a cyber criminal’s day by taking steps to protect themselves online, such as:
- Using strong and unique passphrases and passwords
- Using a password manager
- Enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Regularly backing up your important data
- Protecting your small business against phishing attacks
Week 4: Putting it all together
October 24-28
Together, we can fight phishing. This week, we’ll encourage Canadians to teach others how to ruin a cyber criminal’s day by providing information they can easily share with colleagues, friends, relatives and neighbours, like:
- Learn to spot the 7 red flags of phishing
- Helping older adults get cyber safe
- Cyber security for children
- How to teach coworkers about phishing
Stay connected and become a champion
Champions are a key element of success to the Get Cyber Safe campaign. If you'd like to become a champion for Cyber Security Awareness Month or are interested in partnering with us on future opportunities, please email contact@cyber.gc.ca.
- Get the toolkit and review how you can best incorporate Cyber Security Awareness Month messaging into your October 2022 communications efforts
- Bookmark the Get Cyber Safe website and come back regularly for cyber security resources, tips and tools
- Follow, like, and share Get Cyber Safe content on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
- Use #GetCyberSafe, #CyberMonth2022, #Cyber and #CyberSecurity in your posts during the month of October
- Follow the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security on social media and keep up to date with their advice and guidance.
For questions or additional information please contact Get Cyber Safe by:
Email: contact@cyber.gc.ca
Toll-free telephone: 1-833-CYBER-88 (1-833-292-3788)
National Capital Region telephone: 613-949-7048