March 2005

QCT

Quick Computing Topics (QCT) is an electronic Newsletter published by Administrative Computing and Media Services/User Support for CSUB Faculty, Staff, and Students. Past issues will be archived on the IRTS homepage (http://www.csub.edu/InfoRes/CTS/QCT). Please address any comments or suggestions to: Administrative Computing secretary at extension 2115.

Over the past few months, a number of email messages have been delivered to campus individuals imitating security notices from various banks. Some of these recent emails have claimed to be from Citibank, Paypal, Huntington Bank, Washington Mutual, as well as Charter One Bank. These emails are commonly referred to as phishing scams and attempt to attract users to a phony website that appears to look exactly like a legitimate corporate site. A user may be asked to enter a combination of personal information such as web userids and passwords, an account number, ATM card number, social security number or an ATM pin number, which is then used to maliciously access the person's financial data. While the majority of these messages are blocked by the campus anti-spam system, some of the newer variations of these emails are unfortunately delivered to email boxes.

Information Resources would like to again remind campus users to be vigilant in opening any email as they may contain dangerous URL links or attachments. It is imperative that campus users keep the following points in mind:

• Do not open attachments unless you are expecting a specific email with an attachment. Most email viruses appear to be from coworkers, friends, and family.
• Do not click on URL links found in the body of an email message if the email is asking you to provide further information. These URLs may appear to be going one place, but really take you to another site that could possibly infect your computer with a virus or entice you to provide personal information.
• Never respond to an email request to provide login information, account numbers or ATM pin numbers. Most banks don't correspond to customers via email especially for security-related issues.