Monthly Archives: March 2015

Alert, Phishing, Security

Phishing Wall of Shame – “Email Account upgrade”

Today’s Phishing Wall of Shame entry was sent in by Wendy L., who was savvy enough to recognize this laughable attempt at stealing her information as the scam that it was. Check it out below!

phising stack2

“…we are currently perform scheduled maintenance and improvement our service account and as a result of this your accounts must be updated.” – Scammer

Phishing attempts often originate from outside the country, and so their word choice can be confusing, however this isn’t always the case! Bad grammar isn’t how you know you’re dealing with a scammer – the tell tail sign is the request for personal information.

Don’t take the bait! IT will NEVER ask you for your password. Phishing emails attempt to deceive​ you into giving up your private information by leading you to fraudulent websites. Learn more at- http://www.umb.edu/it/getting_services/security/phishing/

However, the scammer’s last line held a grain of truth, because we in the IT department do... “Thank you for using our services !!!!!!”

 

Event

NVIVO – Using NVIVO in your research

NVivo Qualitative Research Software Onsite Demonstration

Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Time: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM Eastern Time
Location: Healey LL Floor – ITC Conference Room

Every day we’re faced with questions and challenges that we need to investigate and find answers for. We look to information to help us deliver insight – and rarely is it just about numbers.

NVivo is software that helps you easily organize and analyze unstructured information. Whatever your materials, whatever your field, whatever your approach, NVivo provides a workspace to help you at every stage of your project – from organizing your material, through to analysis, and then sharing and reporting.

NVivo handles virtually any data, including Word documents, PDFs, audio files, database tables, spreadsheets, videos, pictures and web data. And you can interchange information between NVivo and other applications like SPSS Statistics, Survey Monkey, Evernote and EndNote. Now you can use NVivo to research and analyze social media from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The demonstration will cover:

  • Collecting and importing data
  • Organizing, classifying and coding your data
  • Adding your interpretations and notes
  • Querying and searching your data
  • Visualizing with models, maps, and graphs
  • Sharing your findings

No need to register, just stop by the ITC Conference Room in Healey LL Floor Tuesday, March 24 from 2-4!

We encourage you to share this with your colleagues, students, and others who might benefit.

Alert, Phishing, Security

Beware of this scam email!

Many of you have received an email message with the subject line: “Webmail Upgrading” (screenshot below.  This is a phishing scam. Please do not click any of the links, and if you entered your username and password into this site, please change your UMass Boston email password immediately at password.umb.edu. If you have any difficulty doing so, please call the IT Service Desk at (617) 287-5220.

Although the message claimed to be from “UMass Boston” the sender address is not from a “@umb.edu” email address. Even still, IT will never ask you for your password. Phishing e-mails attempt to deceive you into giving up private information by leading you to a fraudulent web site.​ Don’t take the bait!
For more information on phishing email and how to detect them, please see our web site at this address: http://www.umb.edu/it/getting_services/security/phishing
Update Notifications

Microsoft Security Patches [March 10, 2015]

On March 10th, 2015, Microsoft released security patches for:
  • Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista RT, RT8.1
  • Windows servers 2008, 2003 R2
  • Microsoft Office 2013, 2010, 2007
  • Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013, 2010, 2007
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2013
We strongly encourage you to apply these patches to your PC as soon as possible. For information about these updates please visit:  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms15-mar.aspx
Click on the Windows logo located on the lower left hand corner of your computer screen, a menu will appear, click on “Control Panel”.
Once in the Control Panel, type the words “windows update” in the Search Control Panel field located in the upper right hand corner. As you do, the following screen will immediately appear.

Now, in the upper left handle corner, click the words “check for update”. This screen will appear

Click the “Check for updates” button to begin the checking. The following screen will appear after the checking is completed. All Important Updates must be installed. Click the “Install updates” button to begin the installation. You will need to reboot your computer to finish the installation later.

Alternatively, if you are using Internet Explorer you can click on Tools > and select Windows Update to install the latest security patches.
For questions please call the Service Desk at 617-287-5220 or via email at ITServiceDesk@umb.edu.