University of Rochester wants to raise awareness of online security

Dec 16, 2013 20:31 GMT  ·  By

The University of Rochester has published an amusing video in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of staying safe while surfing the Internet.

The YouTube video, called “Grandma got phished by a hacker,” highlights online threats, particularly phishing attacks, and their effects.

The video might be amusing, but online security should never be treated as a joke, particularly during the holiday season when people do a lot of online shopping.

The educational video comes shortly after the University of Rochester introduced a new service called Proofpoint Targeted Attack Protection, which is designed to protect the organization’s email systems against phishing attacks.

The service monitors emails for suspicious links, and when one is found, it’s rewritten to show where it actually points to. Every website that users visit after clicking on the links is analyzed, and if it’s deemed malicious, it’s blocked.