Phishers Target UT Libraries for Attack

A cyber-criminal utilized Libraries interface of University of Texas (UT) along with one fake e-mail id for running personalized phishing assault impacting the US school's students, published dailytexaonline.com dated August 28, 2014.

The assault was first known when on 13th August 2014 the University of Texas at Austin Police Department (UTPD) informed about it following many students getting dubious electronic mails displaying " *Subject: **UTexas Library System Problem*" as the caption.

Cindy Posey, Spokeswoman for UTPD describes the assault as distributing e-mails among users which appear as arriving from data stacks of UT Library as well as notifies that users won't be able to access University of Texas' Libraries from outside the campus since it has been hijacked. Dailytexanonline.com published this. A web-link inside the e-mail takes onto a site which presents an UT EID login, Posey adds.

Further, the university's Network Security Analyst James Liao with Information Security Office stated that students frequently got fraudulent phishing e-mails; however, he hadn't ever before heard about a message having "UT Libraries" in its header. Dailytexanonline.com reported this.

Liao speculated that anybody who dispatched the phishing electronic mails possible had hold over the interface and logo of UT Libraries, which he 'copy-pasted' onto the e-mails.

Scams aren't something unknown. They merely become different with changes in their delivery mode. The present times have scams increasingly happening via e-mails wherein a formal message impersonates a trusted entity similar as within the current instance where the trusted entity is UT Libraries.

Meanwhile, security analysts of the phishing scheme said official electronic mails which the University sent wouldn't ever have any web-link, which students were supposed for clicking.

Moreover, students must every time check if an e-mail sent to them contained the name of the institution/establishment, the analysts further said, adding that students within the current digital age required applying presence of mind.

Besides, it isn't just the 'University of Texas' university encountering phishing scams lately. Brown University of Providence, Rhode Island, USA too reported of phishing attempts. The university's security specialists have advised campus pupils to send phishing e-mails coming to them to PhishBowl@brown.edu.

» SPAMfighter News - 9/6/2014