How to protect yourself from the dangers of phishing emails  [04.06.24]

To arm yourself against the dangers posed by phishing e-mails, please note the following recommendations.

General recommendations

1. Look out for the following possible signs of forgery in emails: Suspicious sender addresses, subject lines, unusual spelling mistakes or translation errors, incorrect display of umlauts or special characters, unusually formatted texts, texts that are partly in German and partly in another language, unusual signatures.
2. If you have any doubts about the authenticity of a message, proceed as follows: Visit the sender's official website. Compare the contact details given there with those in the message. If you know the sender, call and make sure that the e-mail was deliberately sent to you.
3. Before clicking on a link, position the mouse pointer on the link area. Wait briefly without clicking. The so-called mouseover shows the link destination, which you can then assess better.
4. Do not click on attachments or links that appear suspicious or come from an unknown sender. This is especially true if the sender is asking for money or personal information.
5. If you have received a suspicious e-mail, delete it or move it to your spam folder.
6. Use secure and different passwords to protect your accounts.
7. If you are unsure, inform the Information Security Office.

Administrative recommendations

1. Do not activate macros for documents in emails that originate from unknown persons, regardless of what is claimed in the email.
2. Regularly check whether updates are available for the operating systems, software and firmware used. Install these updates as quickly as possible.
3. Set up automatic updates for the operating systems, software and firmware used, if possible.
4. Activate a virus protection program (check regularly whether the manufacturer provides updates and set up automatic updates for the virus scanner or install available updates as quickly as possible).

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