Kansas State University

search

IT News

Tag: email

Tips for better use of e-mail

Posted on by Rebecca Gould

An article in the Aug. 3-10 issue of Computerworld provides a commentary on the effective use of e-mail. According to the author who reported the research of Dianna Booher, 58 percent of workers spend up to three hours per day on e-mail. While the hours spent are debatable, the loss in productivity resulting from constantly reading and responding to e-mail is real. Some suggestions posed by the author and others to improve the use of e-mail include:

Craft e-mails carefully that are clear and succinct. The author suggests that e-mails have an action, background, and close. Edit the e-mail before hitting the Send button. (Don’t provide a dissertation in an e-mail when another form of communication is more effective.)

Make the Subject line meaningful. Let the receiver know the intent of the message and if action is needed.

Continue reading “Tips for better use of e-mail” →

IT Security Roundtable Aug. 14: Malicious e-mail attachments; Trend Micro products update

Posted on by Harvard Townsend (harv@ksu.edu)

Thousands of people at K-State received malicious e-mails over the last month claiming to be shipping instructions from Amazon.com, an eCard greeting from Hallmark, or Jessica wanting to meet you. This attack was particularly effective, resulting in well over 100 compromised computers around campus.  To learn characteristics of this attack, why it was so effective compared to others, and what you can do to prevent becoming a victim in the future, attend the next IT security roundtable discussion, 9-10:30 a.m. Friday, Aug. 14, in Room 213 in the K-State Student Union.

Continue reading “IT Security Roundtable Aug. 14: Malicious e-mail attachments; Trend Micro products update” →

Reminder: K-State will never ask for your password in an e-mail

Posted on by Harvard Townsend (harv@ksu.edu)

Once again, K-State students, faculty, and staff are the target for spammers trying to trick you into divulging your eID and password in order to compromise your K-State e-mail account and use it to send more spam to thousands of others. Numerous instances of these scams have cropped up this week. This is a reminder that K-State will never ask for your password in an e-mail. For additional information on IT security, see the Jan. 20 InfoTech Tuesday article, “Five Things You Need to Know about IT Security at K-State“.

Malicious e-mail attachments infect numerous K-State computers

Posted on by Harvard Townsend (harv@ksu.edu)

On Monday afternoon (July 13), thousands of K-Staters received malicious e-mail messages with .zip attachments. DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENTS IN THESE E-MAILS, nor click on any links in these messages. Opening the attachment will result in your computer becoming infected and then being used to try to infect other computers by sending the malicious e-mails to accounts both on and off campus.

The malicious e-mails have subjects like:

  • Your friend invited you to twitter!
  • You have received A Hallmark E-Card!
  • Shipping update for your Amazon.com order 254-78546325-658742
  • Jessica would like to be your friend on hi5!

and the attachments have names like:

  • Invitation Card.zip
  • Postcard.zip
  • Shipping documents.zip

Nearly 100 K-State computers became infected on Monday when people opened the malicious attachments. Continue reading “Malicious e-mail attachments infect numerous K-State computers” →

Q/A: How to tell if e-mail is legitimate or scam?

Posted on by Betsy Edwards

How can I tell if e-mail is legitimate or a spam or scam?

First, any e-mail asking for a password or other security data is almost certainly a scam.  Don’t ever respond to that type of e-mail; just delete it.

Second, go to K-State’s IT security blog at threats.itsecurity.k-state.edu and search for a few keywords from the e-mail’s subject line.

Continue reading “Q/A: How to tell if e-mail is legitimate or scam?” →

64 spear phishing scams and counting

Posted on by Harvard Townsend (harv@ksu.edu)

Thus far in 2009, K-State has been the target of at least 64 different spear phishing scams that attempt to steal eID passwords, and at least 41 people have replied to the scams with their password. Of those 41 replies, 37 are known to have been used by criminals to log in to K-State’s WebMail system and send spam. That means K-State is averaging about two new scams every three days and one compromised WebMail account every two days.  The latest compromised eID resulted in someone logging into K-State’s WebMail from the island nation of Mauritius and sending spam from the K-State e-mail servers. Besides the embarrassment of contributing to the worldwide scourge of spam, this has resulted in K-State getting put on spam blocklists for the likes of Hotmail, MSN, and Comcast.

K-Staters are probably tired of hearing this  – IT support staff will never ask for your password in an e-mail. Follow that simple rule, and you will not become a victim of these scams.

Continue reading “64 spear phishing scams and counting” →

17+ K-State eID passwords stolen in e-mail scams

Posted on by Harvard Townsend (harv@ksu.edu)

The crooks are at it again — in the past week, scam e-mails have tricked at least 17 K-Staters into giving their eID password to criminals, who then log into WebMail with the stolen account information and send thousands of spam messages to the world.

This is a reminder to NEVER provide your password in an e-mail to anyone under any circumstances!

This simple rule will prevent you from becoming a victim of these scams and will help keep K-State off spam block lists, since e-mail service providers will block all e-mail from K-State when they see thousands of spam messages coming from WebMail. Furthermore, K-State IT support staff will NEVER ask for your password in an e-mail, nor will any legitimate business. If you ever get an e-mail asking for your password, personal identity information, or financial account information, you can assume it is a fraud and delete it.

Continue reading “17+ K-State eID passwords stolen in e-mail scams” →

Q/A: Video conferencing and LISTSERV

Posted on by Rebecca Gould

Every week, readers send questions to TellTuesday@k-state.edu, the IT newsletter’s input channel. From time to time, questions (paraphrased) and answers will be shared that relate to a broad range of K-Staters.

Q: We are planning for a conference to be held at K-State. Who do I ask about video conferencing capabilities?

A: Contact the Video/Audio Conferencing service at 785-532-5995 or

www.k-state.edu/infotech/video-audio.

Continue reading “Q/A: Video conferencing and LISTSERV” →

eID password deadline is only a week away (Feb. 11)

Posted on by Betsy Edwards

Wednesday, Feb. 11, is the deadline for all K-Staters to change the password on their eIDs for spring semester. This includes individual eIDs as well as group accounts. To change your eID password, go to the eid.k-state.edu site, sign in to your eProfile, and under Password Settings, click “Change your eID password or password-reset options.”

Continue reading “eID password deadline is only a week away (Feb. 11)” →

eID passwords stolen by spear phishing scams again

Posted on by Harvard Townsend (harv@ksu.edu)

One year after receiving the first spear phishing scam, K-Staters are receiving a  flood of new ones in the last week. At least four people have given their eID password to criminals by replying to the scams. In three cases, the criminal(s) used the eID and password to login to K-State’s Webmail and send thousands of spam messages to off-campus sites, thus making K-State appear to be a source of spam and risk getting blocked by major e-mail providers like Hotmail and Gmail.

Remember one simple rule to avoid being a victim of this type of scam: K-State IT support staff will NEVER ask you for your password in an e-mail. Nor would any legitimate business. Thus if you get any kind of e-mail that asks you to reply with your password,  just delete it.

Continue reading “eID passwords stolen by spear phishing scams again” →