Phishing Alert: Item shared with you

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 11:30:21 -0400
notice

Recently, the Division of Information Technology(DoIT) has seen an increase in phishing attacks where items(docs, pdf, spreadsheets) are shared with the UMBC community. An example of such messages can be found below. For privacy purposes, the To field was removed.

From: Christine Bourne (via Google Drive) <drive-shares-dm-noreply@google.com>

Date: Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 6:39 PM

Subject: Item shared with you: "2022resource.pdf"

To:

Christine Bourne shared an item Christine Bourne (bournec@mpsct.org) has shared the following item: 2022resource.pdf

Christine Bourne is outside your organization. Open If you don't want to receive files from this person, block the sender from Drive

Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

You have received this email because bournec@mpsct.org shared a file or folder located in Google Drive with you.

There is no ‘Christine Bourne’ in the UMBC directory (https://www2.umbc.edu/search/directory/advanced/) or otherwise associated with UMBC. Most individuals who have reported this document do not know the sender. Whenever you receive messages like this, ask yourselves:

1. Was I expecting this document? Before receiving a document, you were most likely notified by the individual sending the document. If you were not expecting it, check with the sender if you know them personally. If you do not know the sender, report it to <security@umbc.edu>.

2. Do I know this email and name? Remember, names can be spoofed, and email addresses too! If you do not recognise the name or email, forward the message to <security@umbc.edu> immediately. DO NOT OPEN IT!

3. Is there any online information about this account? By doing a quick Google search, we can see that <bournec@mpsct.org> doesn’t belong to Christine Bourne. If you see a discrepancy like this, forward the message to <security@umbc.edu> immediately, DO NOT OPEN IT!

These are not novel attacks, below are some examples of previously reported campaigns:

145_001.pdf shared by <tmusgrave@slusd.us>

NEW COVID-19 PROTOCOLS.docx shared by <helptool05@gmail.com>

DC.docx shared by <helpd8708@gmail.com>

Departmental distribution list.docx <ithelpdesko400@gmail.com>

Departmental distribution list.docx <ithelpdesko4000@gmail.com>

Departmental distribution list.docx <ithelppdesk007@gmail.com>

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at security@umbc.edu.

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Receive any suspicious emails?

Forward it to security@umbc.edu along with the email headers. For instructions, visit https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970.

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