IT Advisory: Phishing Simulations

This advisory is important to all current employees:

IT continues to see increased phishing emails on campus, in addition to an increased number of breaches within the higher education space. With each breach, more and more personal user information is exposed to potential cybercriminals. When industry breaches occur we are more susceptible to targeted social engineering phishing emails. The most effective way to combat a phishing email is user awareness and not interacting with the phishing email. As a result, during 2022 IT sent out simulated phishing emails to assist with our cybersecurity education and work to enhance employee awareness. 

Starting February 2023, USI’s IT Security team is expanding the simulated phishing email program to continue a focus on cybersecurity education and enhancing employee awareness. These emails are part of our awareness program and help us to educate recipients in recognizing phishing emails. The email simulation will contain a realistic phishing message and will be sent to employees to gauge our awareness of phishing attacks and what to do when we receive phishing emails.

We are also introducing a new feature called the USI phish alert button. To learn more about this feature we will provide a 7-10 minute introduction course about the new tool and how to use it. Starting Monday, February 20, you can access this course via myUSI and selecting the KnowBe4 icon—

Additionally, an email will be sent from the following email address do-not-reply@training.knowbe4.com to alert you when the training is ready. When you are on your work computer, the phish alert icon will be located in your email ribbon and looks like a blue fish hook with an email attached—

More details about the button including when and how to use it are offered in the training course.   

If you need additional assistance, contact the Help Desk by phone at 812-465-1080 or email it@usi.edu.