Students targeted by phishing scams

The "foreign dignitary" contacting students via e-mail may not be who he says he is, and probably does not have millions of dollars to give away.

College campuses are prime targets for phishing e-mails, and Illinois State is no exception.

Carla Birckelbaw, director of Computer Infrastructure and Support Services at Illinois State, explained that many e-mails have been sent out claiming to be from "The ILSTU Team."

These phishing e-mails ask students to supply their password in order to verify their account, letting the hackers into the system.

"These attacks are directed at all of ISU, anyone who has an e-mail account," Birckelbaw explained.

"They are smart and they demonstrate that they know about the university in order to gain your trust."

Though she did not know the exact number of students who had succumbed to these predatory schemes, Birckelbaw commented that enough students were sending in their passwords to warrant a serious response from the school.

"Preventing problems like this is a major focus of [Computer Infrastructure and Support Services] security and education," Birckelbaw said.

"In fact, this is our number one priority right now."

Erin Shaw, a sophomore graphic design major, is glad that there are people on-campus working to prevent "phishers" from being successful.

"I hate getting those e-mails because they look so convincing," Shaw said. "I'm glad that someone at ISU cares to inform us about them so that we don't give in."
Birckelbaw offered a few suggestions to help students recognize when they are being scammed.

"On the iCampus home page is an alert feed that will notify students of any recent suspicious activity. The latest information is posted immediately," Birckelbaw said. "If you do receive something suspicious, report it immediately. We can detect these scammers."

"Never give out your password, not even to large corporations like eBay or PayPal," Birckelbaw said. "They will never ask for your password. Legitimate companies cannot ask for that information.

Source: http://media.www.dailyvidette.com/media/storage/paper420/news/2008/09/08/News/Students.Targeted.By.Phishing.Scams-3418501.shtml