Recently, some staff members have received phone calls from strange people indicating that there were problems with the staff members' computers. They were instructed to allow "IT" access to "fix" the issue.  

This is a scam called social engineering—someone calls pretending to be a vendor, a member of the IT department, a police officer or even a representative from the IRS, to trick you into sharing personal information like your user id and password or your social security number. The caller may offer to send you a link, so they can "fix" a problem with your computer. By clicking on the link, you give the person access to your computer, allowing them to download malicious software on your machine and potentially steal our clients' protected health information, or PHI. 

Health Care for the Homeless IT staff will never ask you for your password, email address, user id or social security number. We will also never send you an email with a link to click. If you receive a phone call from someone asking for your personal information, just hang up. And if you receive an email from someone you don't know telling you to click a link, delete it. 

Let's help protect our clients, and ourselves, by keeping our computers safe.