What is Phishing?

As defined by StaySafeOnline.org, “phishing attacks use email or malicious web sites to solicit personal, often financial, information. Attackers may send email, seemingly from a reputable credit card company or financial institution, that requests account information, often suggesting that there is a problem. When users respond with the requested information, attackers can use it to gain access to the accounts.”

Always remember that banks, technology departments, especially OIT on the campus, financial institutions, and government offices will NEVER request sensitive information via email.

 Did you Know?

Phishing continues to be one of the rapidly growing classes of identity theft scams on the Internet that is causing both short-term losses and long-term economic damage. In May of 2006, over 20,000 individual phishing complaints were reported, representing an increase of over 34% from the previous year.

Source - United States Department of Justice

 OIT Maintenance Information

Next Standard Maintenance Window: October 17, 2008 4:00pm CST- 9:00pm CST

You may see a disruption to some services including Internet connectivity, Blackboard, and mail services as AT&T will be performing some maintenance on the state network during this outage.  Look for a separate announcement soon!

FAQ's on Phishing

 How is it done; how will I know?
Your typical phishing scam will include information requests similar to:

"So you are to send us your mail account details which are as follows:

*Login Page/Webpage:
*User name:
*Password:
*Date of birth:"

Or perhaps….

Dear Webmail User

Due to spam complaints of email users in our webmail system, our investigation shows that your email address is compromised and is used to send out spam message in our webmail system. your Username will be disabled if you do not send us the Information Required:

Your Full Names:
Email address:
Password:
Retype Password:

Why am I getting it?
Basically, anyone with an email address will be targeted in phishing scams.  While DSU works to block this type of email from getting to the campus, the truth is these individuals work very hard to get around the protection devices.  The more positive responses they receive, the more money they make, and the more identities they can compromise. There is a good bit of money to be made in this industry if you can get around the SPAM protection devices!

What are the affects of responding with my password information?
Responding to such request puts you in danger of identity theft or worse.  With your information at hand, phishers can open bank accounts, withdraw from accounts, send emails using your email account, etc.  The list goes on and on. If you respond from a University email address, you can essentially end up preventing email from anyone on the Delta State campus from being delivered to the correct recipients.  If a phishing attempt is executed successfully, meaning you provide your username and password to one of these inquiries, your email account can then be used to send thousands of emails out to various mail servers around the country.  Ultimately, all email from DSU can be blocked from being delivered to other groups, and it sometimes can take weeks to have our mail “unblocked” from these agencies!

What should I do if I receive an email of this nature?

Should you receive emails requesting sensitive information, report it immediately to the campus OIT department and DO NOT RESPOND. Delete the message from your inbox and your deleted items.

What if I did respond to an attempt?

First step is to change your email account password immediately!  Second step is to contact OIT and let us know so that we can help make sure your account is not compromised.
 

ASK OIT? Your Questions Answered by OIT Staff  Ask Your Question Today!

 Question:  Why are emails that I send to other services, (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc) being returned or blocked?

Answer:  Sadly, this is one of the main effects of responding to phishing scams with your sensitive information. By responding with your username and password, you are giving phishers the green light to do whatever they please with your email account.  This usually means that thousands of emails will be sent to random people and possibly even people you know, requesting more sensitive information.  When this happens, to other email services, your email address is identified as a "spammer."  At this point, your email address and possibly the provider of your email address (Delta State in this case) is then "Blacklisted, " which means that any attempt to receive email from you and/or the university will be seen as either spam or a phishing scam and will be blocked.