Today the Security team at DoIT received reports of a phishing scam targeted at the Physics Department.  We have decided to make this a campus-wide announcement, as hackers could potentially send this email out to students, or other faculty and staff; compromising their safety.

This phishing email content is as follows:

“From: heperezufl.edu@gmail.com>

Hello. Are you available?

Please, I need your assistance urgently

Dr. Theodosia Gougousi

Professor

Graduate Program Director 

Department of Physics

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Office:

Physics”

There are many characteristics that lend to this email being considered a phishing email; for example, the vague nature of the email content, coupled with the unknown and suspicious sender. 

However, the biggest red flag here is the hacker posing as a trusted entity. Here the hacker uses a specific form of phishing known as spear phishing to target specific members of the Physics Department. Hackers often gather information about organizations in order to make their phishing scams more personal and believable. Here, the hacker impersonates the Graduate Program Director in order to target staff within this department with the intention that they’d reveal confidential information. 

If you receive this email, please be aware of its malicious nature and do NOT reply to it. Replying to this email could further engage the hacker in hopes that you’ll reveal sensitive information such as your location; which will compromise your safety.

The DoIT security group is fully aware of this phishing email and is currently working on fixing the issue. 

If you receive this email or one with related content, please forward it to security@umbc.edu with full headers (directions here: https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970) delete the email immediately.  If you feel your information or safety has been violated in any way, you are encouraged to call UMBC Police at (410) 455-5555.  

For more information regarding phishing and spam FAQs, please see the

PHISHING/SPAM FAQS section of itsecurity.umbc.edu.

This past week, UMBC users have reported an increase in the occurrence of a particular phishing attack from a specific domain. This phishing email content is as follows:

“From: UMBC noreply@umbc.edu ctirrell@tds.net <ctirrell@tds.net>
Date: Thu, Jun 13, 2019 at 6:35 PM
Subject: UMBC
To: 

Greetings.

A private message has been sent to you by the Admin department. Click hxxps://www.umbc.edu/ and view your message.

Sign.
HEAD of the department”

(This link has been edited so that in longer points to the suspicious web page)

There are many characteristics that lend to this email being considered a phishing email; for example, the vague nature of the email content, coupled with the suspicious source domain and ambiguous signature are red flags when receiving unsolicited emails. In addition to this, hackers often gather information about organizations in order to make their phishing scams more personal and believable. This phishing email in particular was targeted at UMBC faculty and staff where the content of the email presented as being from a trusted entity (head of the department); something phishers often do to scam victims into offering sensitive information, or clicking on malicious links.

If you receive this email, please be aware of its malicious nature and do not click on the link as it points to an unverified web page. The DoIT security group is fully aware of this phishing email and is currently working on fixing the issue. 

If you receive this email or one with related content, please forward it to security@umbc.eduand delete the email immediately.  If you feel your information has been violated in any way, you are encouraged to call UMBC Police at (410) 455-5555.  

For more information regarding phishing and spam FAQs, please see the

PHISHING/SPAM FAQS section of itsecurity.umbc.edu.

Recently, UMBC users have reported the increased receipt of a specific phishing attack stemming from a particular domain. The phishing email content is as follows:

“From: Guthrie, Melinna <Melinna.Guthrie@stonybrookmedicine.edu>

Date: Fri, May 24, 2019 at 8:48 AM

Subject: EARN MORE /PART TIIME JOB OPPORTUNITY

To: 

        Customer Impact Services, secret survey company is currently hiring people from all over USA/CANADA to visit local stores as a shopper and test customer service professionalism while you earn commission of $300 flat on each visit which does not take more than an hour.

You will be given funds to visit a store and pretend as a normal customer while you make purchases and take note of the quality of service as well as environment after which you will give a short report or feed back to the company for business development and customer service improvement decisions via email and earn your commission of $300 per visit.Usually, you will have 2 visits in a week and make $600 or more in a week. I am giving assurance over the legitimacy of this company.

Note:

Only local stores are given, no traveling required

You do not have to pay any money to begin, you'll rather be making money from home

No rigorous process in registering and commencement of assignment(s)

1) Shopper take personal satisfaction in watching service levels rise knowing that they played an instrumental part in that improvement.

2) Shopper know the importance of following directions, they read and follow each client's evaluation criteria to the letter.

**To register

[<hxxps://docs[.]google[.]com/forms/d/1wab3UlNppQepch_ApuXxGYyJWIa6mwCrOthbe0nThnI>;]”

This phishing email is a particularly malicious one owing to number of factors; these include the professional format and grammar, the believable content of the email, as well as the presence of apparently legitimate links and source address. The DoIT security group is aware of the phishing scam and is currently investigating the issue.

Due to the fact that the links contained within the email are google docs, we are unable to block or report them to google as malicious content. With that in mind, we ask that if you receive this email, please forward it to security@umbc.edu, and to treat it as a malicious phishing attack. In order to mitigate potential damages, under no circumstances are users encouraged to click on the link or follow any instructions contained within it; upon receipt of the email please delete it immediately. If you have already done so and feel your personal information has been compromised in any way, please contact UMBC Police at (410) 455-5555. 

For more information regarding phishing and spam FAQs, please see the

PHISHING/SPAM FAQS section of itsecurity.umbc.edu.

**This link has been altered so that it is unable to be clicked and directed to a malicious website or download any malicious software to your machine.