Office of Educational Technology
December 2018 OET Newsletter
Gone Spear Phishing
It is natural to want to help others or share information as quickly and efficiently as we can, and spear phishing, a phishing scheme targeted to a specific individual or group of people, takes advantage of these inclinations. Our College has seen a few of these messages that may be especially prevalent around the holidays.
Spear phishing may use someone you know as bait to cajole you into performing an action. Responding to these phishing requests, which can involve a monetary transaction, the transfer of confidential information, or the downloading of malware, potentially opens the door to critical data and may let the sender know that your email address or phone number is active. The sender may then try to engage you further, at that time or in the future.
If you receive a spear phishing message, do not respond. Report the phish, if it comes to your UD email address, to reportaphish@udel.edu. If you do respond, cease all further communications, and report the incident to OET, so that we can evaluate the situation and possibly your device.
Before you reply to requests for information or assistance, here are some things to look for in the message:
- Misspellings
- Poor grammar
- A conveyed sense of urgency
- Requests for personal or financial information (Never send this information through email to anyone.)
- Requests for you to visit a website or download an attachment (Clicking on a link or downloading a file could install malware to your device.)
- A reply-to address you do not know next to a name you do know
Graphics and signature files are easy to replicate by copying and pasting them into a message. A legitimate graphic or signature does not indicate that the message is legitimate.
If you have questions about the legitimacy of a message, write to OET.
Zooming into 2019
In December, Information Technologies will migrate Zoom Basic or Pro accounts with @udel.edu email addresses to UD’s Enterprise Zoom Pro license at no cost. Anyone who does not already have an account will have a Zoom Pro account created for him or her automatically.
Information Technologies will contact you, if you are a current Zoom Basic or Zoom Pro client, to let you know that your account will migrate before the end of the year and what you can expect. If you are a current Zoom Pro client, you will receive an email from Zoom requiring you to click a link to activate your account under the UD enterprise license. The link in the email also will allow you to choose a reimbursement option for the remainder of your existing license.