Phishing for your login details – do you know what to look out for?

July 8, 2022

We have recently seen a significant increase in the number of malicious emails and messages being sent to colleagues at the Trust which are designed to steal account login information or infect devices with malware.

These messages are often sent either as emails, text messages or phone messages and are crafted to encourage you to follow a link or open an attachment.

Colleagues must remain vigilant as staff at our Trust have fallen victim.

Whilst NHSMail and providers do monitor and block malicious content, it is inevitable that some may pass through.

We advise:

• Be suspicious of emails that ask you to check, renew or share your logins or passwords. Some may link through to pages that look like legitimate NHS login pages.
• Don’t open attachments or click on links in emails without first establishing they are legitimate – for example, were you expecting to receive the email?
• Hover over links (without clicking) to see if the link looks legitimate – in many basic Phishing attempts, the actual link differs from the one you see in the email
• Check the sender of the email – do you know the sender?  Be wary if not, and try to verify the sender
• If the content of the email tries to persuade you to do something that seems too good to be true, it probably is
• If the email claims to be from an official source, it will likely have graphics and images.  Do they look legitimate? An official source will never ask you to share personal details or login credentials
• Check for spelling and grammatical errors in emails – these are often a tell-tale sign of spam.

If in any doubt, do not interact with the message and contact the IT service desk on ext. 4050 (0121 507 4050).