Phishing E-Mails Target Students’ Accounts at UConn

In the last few months, an e-mail fraud called phishing, struck the University of Connecticut e-mail server, putting personal information of thousands of students at risk, as per a report posted in the 3rd week of October 2008 on the institution's IT security Website.

Many students got e-mail messages in their Huskymail (the university's mail system) accounts, asking for security information like usernames, passwords and birth date.

The e-mails seem to come from the University of Connecticut (UConn) administration; however, they are from people aiming to steal identities, said Elaine David, Vice President of Informational Services, as reported by thedailycampus on October 24, 2008. She also said that so far the university had found evidence that at least 12 people had responded to the messages, but there could be more.

A large number of the students have got phishing e-mails via their Huskymail accounts, and this would likely continue, particularly for those scholars who have replied to the earlier phishing messages.

Also, students within the university premises appear worried of phishing and other scams, particularly since anyone can access UConn e-mail addresses easily via the university Website. Moreover, universities have become a prefer target of attacks in recent time.

Meanwhile, according to Envisional, an internet security company, during April-September 2008, it found 460,000 unique e-mails from fraudsters attempting to trick users into divulging their passwords, PIN numbers and other identity details. A lot of these e-mails, said the company, would have been sent as spam to several thousand inboxes, taking the aggregate number of fraudulent e-mails to billions.

However, the officials at the university cautioned that e-mails, which contain links pointing to Websites of companies, are often fake and no one should ever open these links. The officials also indicated that no university, reputable business, bank or any other financial institution would ever request for confidential information over e-mail.

Moreover, the number of phishing attacks on educational institutions has been increasing rapidly these days. Recently, Whitman College Technology Service in Washington had been hit by a phishing scam targeting its students and members of staff, according to the College.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 11/11/2008