Stay alert to campus phishing scams!

Dear Campus Community Member:

Phishing scams are a growing problem on our campus. Despite various information security awareness programs, a significant number of students, faculty and staff continue to disclose personal information (e.g., full SSNs, financial accounts, user names and passwords, birthdates, etc.) in response to fraudulent emails and web sites. Part of the challenge is that these phishing attempts often look like legitimate communications, with senders posing as University departments (e.g., the “campus help desk”) or other official businesses.

The UW-Madison CIO Office and the Office of Campus Information Security want you to know…

“University departments will not ask you to disclose personal identity information via email.”

While not all departments are yet aware of this change in practice, our goal is to eliminate these types of University email requests entirely and we are working with departments to that end. The good news is that we do have alternate means for helping campus groups get the information they need from users in a more secure manner (e.g., via the My UW-Madison portal), but it may require some changes to the way we do business.

We have created a series of materials, including posters, bookmarks, print ads and articles, to help you better recognize phishing scams and keep your identities protected. I encourage you to review these materials. This OCIS web site includes all of the resources below:
http://www.cio.wisc.edu/security/scams.aspx

• UW Anti-phishing Video
• Common Questions & Answers
• UW Tips for Avoiding Phishing Scams Brochure

Please remember to be suspect of all online and other unsolicited requests that ask you to provide private information, even if the messages appear to be authoritative. When in doubt, ask your department IT representative or call the DoIT Help Desk at (608) 264-HELP (4357) for advice.
Thank you.

Jim Lowe
Chief Information Security Officer
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Office of Campus Information Security (OCIS)
www.cio.wisc.edu/security