E-mail Scam Attacks Syracuse University

On April 17, 2008, around 300 Syracuse University (SU) students, faculty members and staff got a warning from a phishing mail that their accounts would be deleted in 3 days if they do not respond to the message with their usernames and passwords.

Phishing is an email scam operated by cyber crooks for stealing private data of internet user through fake mail messages. They possess an appearance of an authentic source like bank, technology supports services and friends and they want the users to respond with private data like passwords and usernames.

The mail, which the students and faculty members received, was sent from a supposed syr.edu address, which appeared to have come from Webmaster team of SU. Surprisingly, SU's ITS (Information technology and Services) informed that they did not send the message and said that like many other colleges in 2007, SU has been attacked by a phishing scam.

The computer security staff of the University said that a user lodged a compliant about receiving this kind of a mail. Any of the users who have either replied or opened the mail has been advised to change the password as soon as possible to avoid any sort of internet attacks.

The security officers also informed that ones the attackers gain access to such accounts, like the SU one, those accounts will be used to send more fake and spam mails. Further, it's called "spoofing" the mail account and it becomes tough to detect the source of phishing.

SU spam filters sort through 7 Million to 9 Million mails everyday sent to SU accounts. IT Architect and UNIX Manager, Christopher Croad, who also controls the e-mail system and anti-spam efforts, said that on an average almost 90% of those mails are reported to be spam, as reported by THE DAILY ORANGE on April 28, 2008.

The SU is one of the 85 universities that have been attacked by the phishing scam. The officials have also asked the users to have strong passwords and also advised to use unique and different passwords for different accounts. The users were also recommended never to display their private information online.

Related article: E-Crime Reporting Format To Be Launched in July

» SPAMfighter News - 5/2/2008