Email facts

• SAU does not send email from admin, administrator, root, etc. for information regarding updates or personal information. If you receive an email from the “IT Team” and it is asking for login information, it is an attempt to get personal information about you.  Our automated messages for over-the-limit, undeliverable (email address entered incorrectly), or bad subject lines do come from System Administrator but will never solicit personal information.
• Microsoft does not and never will send email telling you to download service packs or updates. The files you are linked to are called trojan horses*; programs that trick you into running them. They are malicious like a virus but cannot replicate without user interaction. Students, if you have auto-updates turned on, updates are advertised with balloon pop ups from the system tray in the lower right corner of your screen.
• A bank or Pay Pal did not lose your account info. This is a scam called phishing* where hackers attempt to gather credit card and bank information to purchase goods online using your accounts.
• The FBI or CIA will not send you a warning about looking at illegal sites via email; they will be at your front door. This is currently being utilized to distribute a trojan horse*.
• Compressed attachments are used to avoid email virus scans. Do not open this attachment unless you are expecting compressed files from a known, trusted source.
• Hackers are coming up with new ways to get information about you every day; be alert.

Email do’s

• When in doubt, don’t open the email. You should be especially aware of attachments.
• If you do open an email and you get strange error messages or your computer does not react as expected, please call Information Technology.
• Copy/paste URLs in to the address bar of your browser instead of clicking the link in the email. This is another phishing* attempt where hackers use exploits to disguise the link, and you may not go to the site you intended.

Email don’ts

• Faculty and staff should not apply service packs or system updates to their work systems, Information Technology takes care of this for you!
• Do not follow links to untrusted websites. A “really funny” link from a friend could take you to a website containing the latest virus.
• Students should only apply service packs and updates from one of these sources:
  1. StudentNet CD
  2. http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
  3. Automatic Updates

   

  Terms and definitions*
  (http://www.webopedia.com)
  

  
  Phishing - The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information. For example, 2003 saw the proliferation of a phishing scam in which users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user’s account was about to be suspended unless he clicked on the provided link and updated the credit card information that the genuine eBay already had. Because it is relatively simple to make a Web site look like a legitimate organizations site by mimicking the HTML code, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay’s site to update their account information. By spamming large groups of people, the “phisher” counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers with eBay legitimately. Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on “fishing,” the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.

  More information:
  http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/internet/phishing.shtml
   

• Trojan horse - A destructive program that masquerades as a benign application. Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your computer. The term comes from the Greek story of the Trojan War, in which the Greeks give a giant wooden horse to their foes, the Trojans, ostensibly as a peace offering. But after the Trojans drag the horse inside their city walls, Greek soldiers sneak out of the horse's hollow belly and open the city gates, allowing their compatriots to pour in and capture Troy.
   

• Virus - A program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs against your wishes. Viruses can also replicate themselves. All computer viruses are manmade. A simple virus that can make a copy of itself over and over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is dangerous because it will quickly use all available memory and bring the system to a halt. An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across networks and bypassing security systems.