Kansas State University

Two weeks ago we had more compromised eIDs than in the period from January 1 – May 13. Last week proved to be equally lucrative for scammers.  Scammers attack when individuals are busy and vulnerable.

As these attacks continue to increase in frequency and sophistication, it is of critical importance that you:

• Think before you click – always be suspicious of any unsolicited communication.
• Don’t respond to that email if you are not absolutely certain of the sender and the contents.
• If you are not certain about an attachment, don’t open it.
• If you do respond to a scam, immediately change your password.

These simple guidelines could prevent scammers from using your credentials elsewhere and even save your identity. Personal information is like money. Value it. Protect it.

K-State is seeing a significant increase in the number of phishing scams within the last few days.  Phishing scams are used as a way to trick you into giving up your credentials (eID and password). Once you give up your credentials, the scammer has access to all your K-State accounts.

There have been 239 phishing scams — some duplicates — resulting in 43 compromised accounts since Mon., June 11. The compromised accounts are then used to send additional phishing scams.

K-State will never ask for your eID, password, etc. by email or in a survey. If you are uncertain about the legitimacy of an email, check the Phishing scams website.  When in doubt don’t respond, just delete.

Report phishing scams to abuse@ksu.edu and be sure to include the email headers in your message.

Contact the IT Help Desk 785-532-7722 if you have additional questions about phishing scams.

Cybercriminals know the best strategies for gaining access to your sensitive data. According to IBM’s 2014 Cyber Security Intelligence Index, human error is a factor in 95 percent of security incidents.

A few K-State stats:

• In January 2016, there were 60 phishing scams reported resulting in 9 compromised accounts. A compromised account means hackers were successful in getting a K-Stater to give up their eID and password.
• In January 2017, there were 355 phishing scams reported resulting in 313 compromised accounts!

What does this tell us?

You are the first line of defense in protecting your personal identity information. The numbers of phishing scams are going to continue to increase and the best defense is you!

Learn how to identify phishing scams and don’t give your credentials up to these criminals.

Continue reading “Learn what it takes to refuse the phishing bait!” →

The Dec. 22 email that appeared to be from President Myers is one more example of the need to be vigilant before responding to an email, clicking a link, or opening an attachment. The email appeared to be legitimate. A point of clarification though is communications from President Myers would more than likely be posted in K-State Today. Also when verifying the “reply to” email address, there was an additional “from” email address not associated with K-State (see the highlighted email below).

U.S. CERT (U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team) reminds us to remain on the alert and when in doubt, delete the email, avoid clicking on a link and do not open suspicious attachments. When in doubt, DELETE.

In response to the latest phishing scam, Information Technology Services and Communications and Marketing have:

• Blocked the URL for the email on the K-State network
• Sent the attachment to Trend Micro for analysis. The attachment was deemed malicious and Trend Micro is preventing the attachment from being downloaded.
• Posted notices about the scam throughout campus.