Universities of America Facing Threatening Phishing Email Campaigns

Patriottalon.com reported on 13th August, 2014 stating that IT Security Office of the University of Texas or UT, a coeducational public university located in Texas, Tyler, United States, have urged its employees to be cautious of scam emails purporting to be from it.

Patriottalon.com reported on 13th August, 2014 quoting an email from Chris Green, Interim Director of Information Security, as "UT was informed that its campuses were target of a very well-researched, well-timed and well-designed phishing email attack set off from a Russian website."

UT Tyler is on security alert for an imminent phishing attack though it has not been targeted. Green thinks that only the University's workers would be struck and not students.

Green said that he is not aware of anyone from UT Tyler receiving those emails.

Phishing attempt at other UT campuses was with scam emails entitled "Your Salary Review Documents" which was about a pay raise of 2.5 percent according to email of Green.

The Russian website has been blocked by UT Tyler with its campus firewall. Security officials of University observed that this will stop users on campus computers to access the site but those who will check it from their home or mobiles are still vulnerable to this scam.

Security officials comment that it is not the only UT Tyler which is suffering from an unwanted phishing email campaign as of now because recently there was confirmed report of phishing attack on another American institution, the University of Hawaii.

Cybercriminals threatened to terminate user accounts if they did not reply to them, an attempt to gain access to their passwords and user IDs. Moreover, the investigating officials stressed that attackers emulated organizations like IRS.

Users are suggested to take the following precautions by the Information Technology Services:: Be cautious while clicking on unwanted links in unwanted messages, especially when the URL directs to a website doesn't start with www.hawaii.edu or .hawaii.edu. Also please change your password immediately if you believe you might have given your UH password and username in reply to a phishing email message. Please visit ITS website to find a record of registered phishing attacks or contact them at their helpline number.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/22/2014