Phishing Awareness and Education

Phishing at Albemarle County Public Schools

Here at ACPS, our Phishing Awareness and Education program periodically sends emails that resemble real phishing attempts. It’s designed to create a safe, educational environment for a recipient to practice phishing email identification with no penalty to them if a link is clicked. If it's determined that a school, department, or individual are in need of further training, we contact them for more direct, in-depth phishing education.

Our objectives within this program are to:

  • Train participants to recognize, report, and avoid phishing attacks, which helps protect them and their community from cyber threats.
  • Help the Department of Technology collect better metrics and information about the ever-changing landscape of email-based attacks in order to better protect the ACPS community from these threats.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a cyber crime in which a target or targets are contacted by email, telephone, or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords. Phishing messages typically encourage you to click a link that takes you to a fraudulent website where you are asked to login and/or submit private information which is then captured by the scammer. The information is then used to access important accounts and can result in identity theft and financial loss.

How to spot phishing attempts

We're Here To Help

It’s extremely important to us that you know we’re here for you. If you do click on a malicious link, download a bad attachment, or provide credentials to a phony website, the first thing you should do is let a member of the Department of Technology know. We will provide you with directions and steps to ensure you, your colleagues, and our students, remain safe.

Check out the resources below for more information on how to contact the Service Desk, sign up for the Self Password Reset Tool, or learn more about Phishing with our Phishing Training Video. Thank you for all your hard work and stay safe out there!

ACPS Service DeskSelf Password ResetACPS Phishing Training Video