IT Announcement - Spear Phishing Email on Campus

Spear Phishing emails have recently been received by campus users.  The most recent Spear Phishing emails impersonated the Help Desk Admin from “@fullerton.edu” email with the subject line “Your mailbox is almost full” asking users to login to “Outlook Office Portal” website immediately.  This action would create a rule in Outlook to forward all of your emails to the hacker.

What to look for?
To protect yourself from phishing attacks, look out for emails and messages that have these characteristics:

  • Requests to click on links or open attachments
  • Sense of urgency
  • Appeal to fear
  • Requesting sensitive data

Spear Phishing subject line examples:

  • “are you available”
  • “Your account will expire today.  Click here to validate.”
  • “Send me a copy of your driver’s license card today for parking.”
     

What to do?

  • Regularly check your Outlook rules. Please follow the instructions to review and delete any Outlook rules that you do not recognize
  • Please check the sender email address.  Fullerton employees emails is always username@FULLERTON.EDU, not GMAIL.COM, OUTLOOK.COM or any other domain name
  • Do not respond to any email from anyone asking for money or gift cards. Pick up the phone and call the sender to confirm authenticity
  • Do not provide sensitive personal information such as usernames and passwords

Questions?
If you have any questions, please contact the IT Help Desk at (657) 278-7777 or helpdesk@fullerton.edu