As we recently highlighted on our website during National Cyber Security Awareness Month, cybersecurity is of growing importance not just to industries and individuals, but to the nonprofit sector too. Vigilance with respect to personal information, password practices, and data storage is one crucial step. Even if your own systems are relatively secure, email scams and fraudulent websites proliferate as a means to draw in potential victims.
TechSoup recently discovered just such an attempt. A website claiming to be TechSoup was created as a mirror version of the home page of our old site. The fraudulent website replicated the old TechSoup landing page, except that all links led to a sign-in page, in an apparent attempt to obtain usernames and passwords from our members.
TechSoup acted swiftly to take down the site, but doing so required the necessary time to file a uniform domain name dispute resolution policy. We have not identified any victims of this particular scam.
If you believe you signed on to this fraudulent site and suspect that your TechSoup user information may have been compromised, we suggest that you immediately take the following steps. Review your account to confirm that the information is still accurate and that any donation requests were in fact made by your organization. And, if you use your TechSoup password across any other sites, change them as well as the TechSoup password itself.
In the meantime, we encourage you to check out TechSoup's many cybersecurity resources, including both general guides and available software products to strengthen your existing systems. Here are a few good places to start:
- 9 Tips to Lock Down Your Data and Protect Yourself
- How Secure Is Your Organization?
- How TechSoup Keeps Your Information Safe — and How You Can Do the Same on Your Nonprofit Website
- Microsoft Releases Cybersecurity and Privacy Guidelines
- Security Resources for Your Nonprofit or Library
