April 2008

Albert, Torchtone and the Student Information System (SIS) will be unavailable from Sat., April 26 at 9am until Sun., April 27 at 9am, while an important software upgrade is performed. For information updates. please check the ITS Network & System Status page (www.nyu.edu/its/status/).

Thank you for your cooperation, and our apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause. Should you have any questions or concerns, please email them to its.maintenance@nyu.edu.

Posted by Jill Hochberg at 04:10 PM | Permalink

A malicious email message purporting to be an "e-card" from Hallmark.com is being sent to NYU community members. The link in the message requests that the recipient click on a link to access the "e-card". The link does not point to the Hallmark.com domain; rather, it will download harmful software to your computer. Commercial antivirus products are not always able to immediately detect and remove this malicious software.

You can read more about the alert on Hallmark's website.

If you happen to receive this phishing message, forward it as an attachment to phishing@nyu.edu and then delete it. Do not respond to it or click on any links in the body of the message.

Also, please remind your colleagues to be aware of these types of phishing scams - their infected machine could negatively impact others.

If you or another NYU member may have clicked on the link, contact ITS Technology Security Services immediately at security@nyu.edu. Alternatively, you may contact ITS Client Services at 212-998-3333.

Posted by Alissa Wilkinson at 02:00 PM | Permalink

There have been various reports from sources at NYU as well as from other colleges about a phishing message that purports to be the 'help desk'. The message requests that the person reply back to the email with the email address & password in order to avoid the email account from being 'shut off'

NYU members should not reply to the fraudulent phishing emails. Instead, forward the messages to our spam filtering system's email address is.spam@nyu.edu. Doing so trains our email filters to prevent such types of spam from arriving into inboxes.

As a reminder of better security practices, always remember that:

• No NYU member will ever ask for your account password, especially not over email
• Do not reply back to emails from unidentified, untrusted sources.
• Forward all spam to is.spam@nyu.edu. This helps train our email filters to block such messages in the future
• Messages that request personal information over plaintext email should be regarded as being suspicious. If it is spam, forward it to is.spam@nyu.edu. When in doubt, do not reply and contact security@nyu.edu.
• If a message informs you of an impending 'account closure' unless you comply with its demands, it is often a sign that the message is a phishing scam. Do not comply with its requests.

A sample of the phishing message can be found below:

Dear Email Account Owner,

This message is from webmail messaging center to all webmail account owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are terminating all unused email accounts to create space for new accounts.

To prevent your account from being terminated, you will have to update it by providing the information requested below:

***********************************************************
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY NOW
E-mail Username : ...............
E-mail Password : ...............

***********************************************************

Warning!!! Account owners that refuses to update his or her account within
Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Warning Code:11XXTT8765

Thanks,
Webmail Administrator

Posted by cp493 at 04:32 PM | Permalink