What happened?We have been notified by our cybersecurity counterparts at other universities that the company Coursicle, a student course scheduling app, is experiencing an ongoing defacement of their web presence. In addition, some students who use Coursicle are receiving unexpected push notifications to their phones from Coursicle. FIT has no official affiliation or relationship with […]
What happened? We have received several reports of FIT users getting fake subscription renewal emails from reputable companies, like Norton AntiVirus and McAfee. Scammers will often try to take advantage of the new year, when email inboxes are full of promotions, receipts, and renewal notifications, hoping to catch the recipients off guard. We would like […]
Cybersecurity researchers have identified an increase in email phishing targeting mostly North American universities attempting to steal university login credentials. The threats typically leverage COVID-19 themes, including testing information and the new Omicron variant. Researchers believe activity will increase in the next two months as colleges and universities provide testing for students, faculty, and other […]
What happened?Over the weekend and this morning, FIT (and many of our peer SUNY campuses) received emails from several senders all purporting to represent the IRS, with a subject line of “Recalculating Your Tax Refund Payment.” The emails contained a click button that brings users to a site that looks like an IRS.gov site, but […]
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) also known as 2-Step Verification, or multi-factor authentication requires a user to present two or more pieces of evidence to authenticate (verify their identity) before they are granted access to an application. Two-Factor Authentication at FIT In this short video, Walter Kerner, FIT’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), explains the […]
What happened?An advisory has just been released by one the Higher Education cybersecurity communication groups alerting us to two phishing campaigns targeting students using the lure of the Pell Grant. The first one attempts to contact students by text message, a form of phishing called “SMiShing,” congratulating them on their acceptance into the Pell Grant Award […]
What happened?We have just been made aware that some FIT employees and students have received three different phishing emails appearing with the subject lines “You have 5 new held messages 12/17/2020″, “Mailbox quota notification for,” and “Notice: Account Update.” All three emails pretended to be related to Office 365 and, in some cases, were spoofing […]
FIT has seen a large increase in spam and phishing emails, aimed at both students and employees. They claim to be discussing lucrative job offers from CareerBuilder and other sources. We have reason to believe these emails are fake, aimed at getting recipients to contact the sender and divulge personal information.
What happened?The FBI is investigating widespread cybercriminal activity targeting college and university students via spear phishing. Spear phishing, in contrast to traditional phishing, involves highly targeted phishing emails sent to a specific group of individuals—in this case, students with federal student loans. In these more sophisticated phishing attacks, the bad actor will contact the student […]
What happened? We received multiple reports of scam phone calls that are targeting FIT students. These calls are from suspicious individuals pretending to be FIT employees asking the student to verify the last four digits of the social security number and to “go over their student file.” What should you do?If you received a phone call […]