Alerts
E-card Greeting Viruses
There has been a rise in messages that include e-card greetings from unknown users. While Regent's email security servers are preventing more than 95% of spam and virus activity from reaching Inboxes, there are some messages that pass through. Please be advised that e-card greeting messages are heavily being used to transmit viruses and aim to infect your computer. Please use the following general guidelines when opening email messages.
1. Make sure you are running Antivirus software and that the virus definitions are the most current release.
2. Never open messages with subject lines that do not make sense. Examples include reply indicators without you having sent an email in the first place.
3. Be very wary of messages from people you do not know. While we all have to interact with new people, we generally know the business that transpires between parties. If a message comes through from an unknown person with an illogical subject line, give due consideration prior to opening the message.
4. Delete suspect messages without opening them. Sometimes viruses only need you to open a message in order to infect your computer. To avoid this, don't open messages you think might cause infection.
If you have and questions or concerns about this or any virus or security threat please
contact the Help Desk at 757.352.4076 or helpdesk@regent.edu.
Phoney emails from Regent Help Desk
Recently there have been emails sent to our users from a bogus address and are not in any manner affiliated with the Regent
University Help Desk or IT department. The following describes the message. However, there could easily be multiple variants of
this message.
*********
Sender: regenthelpdesk@hotmail.com
Subject: passwords
Message Body:
Please revert back to original passwords due to some technical difficulties until further notice. Thank you.
Computer Services
*********
If you should receive any message from the IT department or University Help Desk and are unsure of its authenticity, please
contact the Help Desk at 757.352.4076 or helpdesk@regent.edu.
Phoney emails from the FBI
The FBI today warned the public to avoid falling victim to an on-going mass email scheme wherein computer users received
unsolicited emails purportedly sent by the FBI. These scam emails tell the recipients that their Internet use has been monitored
by the FBI and that they have accessed illegal web sites. The emails then direct recipients to open an attachment and answer
questions.
The email appears to be sent from the email addresses of mail@fbi.gov and admin@fbi.gov. There may be other similarly styled
addresses. The recipient is enticed to open the zip attachment which contains a W32/SOBER.JEN@MM worm. The attachment does not
open and its goal is to utilize the recipient's computer to garner information. Secondly, the virus allows the email to be
forwarded to all those listed in the recipient's address book.
The text of the email is as follows:
********************
Dear Sir/Madam,
We have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.
Important: Please answer our questions! The list of questions are attached.
Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison
Federal Bureau of Investigation-FBI-
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW , Room 3220
Washington, DC 20535
Phone: (202) 324-30000
**********************
For more information about this scam visit www.fbi.gov
Phishers use IRS tax refund as bait
A spam/phishing email message remains in circulation claiming that recipients are eligible for a tax refund from the IRS. The email appears legitimate, but the link included within does not send the user to the IRS website. This reflects typcial phishing characteristics and users should remain aware of these types of messages.
The IRS website provides excellent guidance on how to determine fraudulent email. Please read the full details on the Internal Revenue Service's real website.
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Useful Links
Regent University provides Antivirus software to all managed workstations and laptops. If you believe your Regent computer does not have Antivirus software on it or the definitions are out-of-date, call the Help Desk immediately.
You should have an Antivirus program running on your personal computers as well. Here is a list of vendors to choose from.
- Fee Based Antivirus Programs
- Free Antivirus Programs
OnGuard Online is a government sponsored website that provides lots of useful tips on
how to protect yourself online.
Symantec Security Response provides detailed information about current threats and how to protect your
computer from them.
Our Unsolicited Email FAQ answers some of the most common
questions we've received about Spam and Phishing. Take a look, you might find the answer to a question you have about unsolicited Email.
Our Password Security FAQ answers some of the most common
questions we've received about our password requirements and keeping passwords a secret. Take a look, you might find the answer to a question
you have about Password Security.
Recently, some folks published a paper titled Why Phishing Works. I highly
recommend that all persons interested in learning more about protecting themselves from this tactic (and further from identity theft) read this paper. There are many technical
references within the paper, but I urge the reader to become familiar with them as knowing what these terms mean will better prepare you for safe online business transactions.
I offer that all will come away from this paper much more alert about non-authentic web sites. In the least, it should stir up an effort within you to become more conscience
about which sites you do business with over the Internet. Enjoy!
