Monthly Archives: July 2015

News, Phishing, Security

Phishing Wall of Shame – “Office/365 Changes to Sign in”

A scam with flashy graphics!

Sometimes phishing attacks are obvious because the contents of the email are clearly not professional. However this is not a reliable way to catch scammers! Today’s Phishing Wall of Shame entry comes from Robyn A., who was savvy enough to sniff out this sophisticated scam. Here’s what it looked like:

phishing stack5

This is the most sophisticated email layout we’ve seen so far on the Phishing Wall of Shame series. It’s not perfect, but you can see that it wouldn’t have taken too much more work to make it look perfect.

Never rely on the incompetence of scammers to keep yourself safe!

So how did Robyn know this was a scam? The links that the email encourages users to click don’t lead to a URL that she recognized. When you hover your mouse cursor over a link, your browser shows the URL it leads to. If you expect to see “umb.edu” and don’t, this is a warning sign!

If you are suspicious of a link, website, or email, you can contact the IT department to ask if it may be a scam. Forward a copy of a suspicious email to abuse@umb.edu.

Always remember…

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/

News, Update Notifications

Xythos update, and downtime notification: 7/22 – 7/23

The UMass Boston Document Management System, Xythos, will be down for a scheduled upgrade from July 22nd at 9:00AM until July 23rd at 5:00PM

IT Staff will be performing an upgrade to the Xythos document management, sharing, and collaboration system, to the latest version – 7.2.145. Xythos will be down from Wednesday July 22nd at 9:00AM until Thursday July 23rd at 5:00PM.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you have concerns accessing your files during that period,
please contact ITServicedesk@umb.edu or call 617-287-5220.

To learn more about Xythos file sharing, click here.

Visit the IT Status page for the latest updates: umb.edu/it/status

Update Notifications

Microsoft Security Patches [July 15, 2015]

On June 9th, 2015, Microsoft released security patches for:
  • Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista RT, RT8.1
  • Windows servers 2012, 2008, 2003
  • Microsoft Office 2013, 2010, 2007
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-jul.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.