Spot and stop phishing
Break the urgency-and-impulse pattern used to steal credentials or money.
Secure Our World
From Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
Pause on each phishing example in the playlist and name the emotional trigger, technical clue, and independent verification path.What this lesson is really solving.
Treat urgency, secrecy, unexpected attachments, payment changes, login prompts, and unusual sender details as reasons to verify. Do not use the message's link or contact information; navigate independently or contact a known person through a separate channel.
Understand the idea before touching the steps.
Treat unexpected requests as claims to verify through a separate trusted channel.
Follow these steps in order.
Take the action in each step; then use the deliverable below to prove the lesson is finished.
- 1
Pause on urgency, secrecy, payment changes, login warnings, unusual attachments, and requests to bypass process.
- 2
Open the known app or type the official site yourself instead of using the message link.
- 3
Verify money, credential, and sensitive-data requests through a second channel you already trust.
- 4
Report suspicious messages, block the sender, and warn affected contacts without forwarding active links.
See the standard in context.
A payroll email says direct-deposit access expires today. Sam does not click. The display name is familiar but the domain is altered by one letter. Sam opens the employer portal from a bookmark and reports the message through the official process.
Inspect before you move on.
- The request is verified using a channel not supplied by the message.
- Links are inspected without entering credentials on an unexpected page.
- Suspicious messages are reported before deletion when an organization can investigate.
Your deliverable
A four-step verification rule posted where household or team members can use it.
Watch for this
Deciding a message is safe because the logo, sender name, or writing style looks familiar.
Prove it—don’t just recognize it.
You can verify a request without using any contact information contained in the suspicious message.
Quick knowledge check
Answer from the lesson—not from confidence alone. Score at least 2 of 3 to unlock completion.
This curriculum-aligned check is scored automatically and stored with your account when signed in. It is an objective learning signal, but it has not yet been independently validated as a standardized assessment.
Tools, templates, and references
Pass the knowledge check above first.
Completion unlocks after a score of 2 out of 3. Then confirm that you produced the lesson deliverable.
Go to the knowledge check