It's Tax Season — Avoid the "Phish!"
- Details
- Category: Alerts
- Published on Friday, March 18, 2022 11:29 AM
- Written by Adrian Cepero
Dear Staff,
In an effort to further enhance our district's cyber defenses, we want to highlight a common cyber-attack that everyone should be aware of – phishing.
"Phishing" is the most common type of cyber attack that affects organizations like ours. Phishing attacks can take many forms, but they all share a common goal – getting you to share sensitive information such as login credentials, credit card information, or bank account details by pretending to be an individual or organization you may know or trust.
Although we maintain controls to help protect our networks and computers from cyber threats, we rely on you to be our first line of defense.
We’ve outlined a few different types of phishing attacks to watch out for:
- Phishing: In this type of attack, hackers impersonate a real company to obtain your login credentials. You may receive an email asking you to verify your account details with a link that takes you to an imposter login screen that delivers your information directly to the attackers. These generally lack personal information since they are sent to a large number of people at once, have a sense of urgency and contain typos and grammatical errors.
- Spear Phishing: Spear phishing is a more sophisticated phishing attack that includes customized information that makes the attacker seem like a legitimate source. They may use your name and phone number and refer to Hackensack Public Schools in the email to trick you into thinking they have a connection to you, making you more likely to click a link or attachment that they provide.
- Whaling: Whaling is a popular ploy aimed at getting you to transfer money or send sensitive information to an attacker via email by impersonating a real district administrator. Using a fake domain that appears similar to ours, they look like normal emails from a high-level official of the district, typically the Superintendent, Business Administrator or Principal, and ask you for sensitive information (including usernames and passwords) or to transfer money/purchase gift cards.
- Shared Document Phishing: You may receive an email that appears to come from file-sharing sites like Dropbox or Google Drive alerting you that a document has been shared with you. The link provided in these emails will take you to a fake login page that mimics the real login page and will steal your account credentials.
What You Can Do
To avoid these phishing schemes, please observe the following email best practices:
- Do not click on links or attachments from senders that you do not recognize. Be especially wary of .zip or other compressed or executable file types (these are removed automatically in our email system).
- Do not provide sensitive personal information (like usernames and passwords) over email.
- Watch for email senders that use suspicious or misleading domain names (some may even originate from free email accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo).
- Inspect URLs carefully to make sure they’re legitimate and not imposter sites.(The most important pieces of a domain name are the last 2 portions. For example, an attacker may create a domain name such as netflix.[some random domain].com to try to make a domain seem legitimate. The red flag is [some random domain].com. Any legitimate email will usually originate from the company's primary domain. In this case, netflix.com. Anything before the last two portions of the domain are meaningless and easy to spoof.)
- Do not try to open any shared document that you were not expecting to receive. Reach out to the sender via another method to confirm the authenticity of the shared document.
- If you can’t tell if an email is legitimate or not, please report it using our PhishER (fish hook icon) tool in Gmail or by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
- Be especially cautious when opening attachments or clicking links if you receive an email containing a warning banner indicating that it originated from an external source.
Thanks again for helping to keep our network, and our people, safe from these cyber threats.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Regards,
Department of Technology
Update/Add Emergency Contact Information
- Details
- Category: Alerts
- Published on Thursday, November 11, 2021 11:00 AM
- Written by Adrian Cepero
In order to ensure you receive all emergency notifications (school closings, delayed openings, etc.), please make sure you have added your contact information in our "School Messenger Contact Manager" using the link below. If you need to update your information, you can do so using the link below as well.
Requesting Technology Support (2021-2022)
- Details
- Category: Alerts
- Published on Tuesday, September 07, 2021 6:00 AM
- Written by Adrian Cepero
For Parents/Students: Please call 201-646-6820 or send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
For Staff:
- Using SchoolDude ensures there is a record of your request
- Requests are properly routed automatically to the individual(s) responsible for support of the specific type and location of issue
- It provides valuable data that we analyze periodically to identify problem areas and balance workload
- Technology staff is evaluated on how quickly and efficiently they address requests. If issues are not entered into SchoolDude, this may negatively impact their evaluation.
There are a few types of issues that should not be reported using SchoolDude:
- Genesis Issues (including login)
These should be reported using the "Genesis Staff Support" form at the bottom of the left-hand column of our homepage. - Printer Issues
Toners, drums and service must be requested using the United Business Systems 1-800 number provided on the device. In some cases, if the issue is due to connectivity, it may be referred back to our technology department in which case you should open a SchoolDude IT Request with "Network Connectivity" as the type of issue.
Issue | Response Time |
Classroom Desktop (Boot/Power/OS Failure) | < 5 Hours |
Laptop/Staff Chromebook (Boot/Power/OS Failure) | < 5 Hours |
SMARTBoard (No Image) | < 24 Hours |
Office Desktop (Boot/Power Failure) | < 4 Hours |
Connectivity Issue (Ethernet/WiFi) | < 2 Hours |
Printer Issue (Non-MFP/Copier) | < 24 Hours |
MFP/Copier Issue (Internal Support) | < 4 Hours |
MFP/Copier Issue (External/Vendor Support) | < 24 Hours |
Phone (Cannot place calls) | < 2 Hour |
Voicemail Pin Reset | < 5 Hours |
Software Error (Non-OS Error) | < 5 Hours |
Software Install Request | 24-48 Hours |
Windows Login Issue/Password Reset | Enroll in self reset tool |
Genesis Login Issue/Password Reet | < 1 hour |
Other Online Application Issue | < 4 Hours |
Website Unblock Requests | 24-48 Hours |
**Please note that while we will make our best effort to meet the response times provided above, we cannot garauntee your issue/request may be fully resolved in the timeframe provided as there are many variables that can impact how quickly an issue is addressed.
If you are not familiar with SchoolDude or need a refresher on how to use it, please review the attached guide.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation,
Adrian Cepero
District Technology Coordinator
Adobe Flash End-of-Life
- Details
- Category: Alerts
- Published on Saturday, February 06, 2021 9:39 AM
- Written by Adrian Cepero
We've received a number of emails over the last week regarding websites that still require Flash and are no longer working. Unfortunately, Adobe Flash has reached its End-of-Life (EOL). Adobe announced in July 2017 that it was ending all support for Flash on December 31, 2020. And as of January 12, 2021, all major browsers and operating systems have blocked it completely.
While in the past we could manually re-enable it, that is no longer possible. If a site or resource you use still requires Flash, you will need to contact the developer or software provider to see if they offer a non-Flash alternative. Developers were given several years to transition away from Flash.
Basic Troubleshooting Steps on a Chromebook
- Details
- Category: Alerts
- Published on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 5:28 PM
- Written by Adrian Cepero
- Hold down the power button for 10 seconds to restart the device each morning and periodically throughout the day.
- Verify you are running the latest version of Chrome by following the steps here.
- Improving performance on Zoom and Meets
- Plug in your Chromebook while using Zoom or Meets to ensure maximum performance. Add a spacer underneath the device to prevent overheating.
- Close all other tabs or apps. Having too many tabs open will hurt performance on even more powerful devices.
- Remove any unnecessary extensions.
- Lower video quality in settings. Google Meets | Zoom: Go to Settings -> Video and uncheck "Enable HD"
- Try reducing the window size by dragging the bottom right corner to see if performance improves.
- Start meeting with video only. Allow video to connect and stabilize for about a minute prior to enabling audio.
- Position yourself near your WiFi router with no obstructions.
- If using a mobile hotspot, positioning yourself near an exterior wall or window may improve reception.
- Plug in your Chromebook while using Zoom or Meets to ensure maximum performance. Add a spacer underneath the device to prevent overheating.
For tutorials and to request support visit the Tech Support section of our Distance Learning website at:
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