ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — On their first day of classes, Memorial University students got a real-life lesson in protecting their personal information.
The university issued two alerts on Wednesday, the first about a phishing attempt, and the second about questionable job application forms circulating on campus.
An email purportedly from the university’s IT service desk was sent to about 100 students, according to an estimate from Steve Greene, Memorial University’s chief information officer and director of IT services.
Alerts from the university said the emails claimed users’ email accounts had reached a 90 per cent limit, and they were directed to login to a URL to increase storage.
The university advised anyone affected to change their password and contact the IT service desk at 864-4595 or [email protected].
Greene said phishing attacks occur randomly throughout the year.
“This is a very common occurrence where they’re just general emails where somebody will pretend or spoof an address. That could be somebody emailing trying to pretend they’re another university, somebody pushing emails out trying to pretend they’re coming from your service desk, or it could be trying to impersonate a user. The methods are to try to trick the end users into clicking the links.”
From there, users might be prompted to enter their credentials, such as user IDs and passwords.
A second possible scam related to protection of personal information was less high-tech.
The university sent an alert that Campus Enforcement and Patrol (CEP) was aware of job application forms circulating on campus with no company name associated with the information request.
“Beware of requests for personal information and please research the credibility of job postings before you share personal information,” reads the alert.
If students see anyone handing out such forms, they are asked to contact the CEP at 864-4100.
The alert advised students to keep personal information private, such as full names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses unless they know they’re sharing this information with a trusted recipient.
Twitter: @juanitamercer_
