Historically, Internet criminals leverage tax season to launch various campaigns to steal money, confidential data, and information resources.

Additionally, cyber criminals often use current events, such as the current Coronavirus global situation, to trick people into opening links purporting to lead to news sites. In reality, these links lead to malicious sites which may try to harvest your confidential information. Victims may be targeted through voice calls, SMS text messages, voicemail messages, and email.

The TTU IT Division strongly recommends that you be vigilant in protecting institutional and personal data and information resources. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission recommends filing your tax returns early to help prevent fraudulent filings.

The TTU IT Division recommends the following cybersecurity practices to protect yourself and your information resources from these and other scams:

• Do not click on links contained within an email unless you are certain of the sender's identity and expecting the information; 
• Do not open attachments unless you are certain of the sender's identity and expecting the information; 
• Delete and do not reply to any suspicious or suspect emails; 
• Update end-point protection on all of your devices; and 
• Keep current on critical system updates:
  • Windows:https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12373/windows-update-faq
  • Mac:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201541
  • iOS and iPadOS:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204204
  • Android:https://support.google.com/android/answer/7680439?hl=en