Always pay attention to your surroundings.

Shoulder surfing is a form of social engineering behavior used by those with malicious intent to gain access to the private information of others such as usernames, passwords, personal identification numbers (PINs) and such other confidential data by looking over the victim’s shoulder without the victim’s knowledge.

Some tips to utilize in order to avoid this pitfall include:

• Shielding documents with your hand or body when filling out important documents in crowded areas;
• Cupping your hand over keypads when entering PIN numbers at ATM or POS terminals;
• At a PC terminal hit the windows key and the “L” key or control alt and delete key to lock it prior to moving away;
• Mac users should either click on the Apple icon and click lock screen, or press control + command + Q at the same time to lock your device.

Keep your eyes peeled for skimmers!

• Before putting your card into any machine try pulling on the card reader first.
• Pin pads can also be tampered with when using any ATM machine check the card reader and the pin pad. Both of these should be firm and hard to move/remove.
• If the machine appears to have been tampered with do not try to remove the skimmer instead contact the Police.
  • For more information on skimmers visit :
    • https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/1420551/how-to-card-skimmer-what-to-do-notice-one/

Detailed information regarding phishing scams and other IT security topics are available on our IT Security website at: www.secureit.fordham.edu or from our blog at www.itsecurity.blog.fordham.edu

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact IT Customer Care at (718) 817-3999 or via email to: HelpIT@fordham.edu.