IT launched a campaign at the end of fall semester – and will continue it through spring – to educate the campus community about phishing. A phishing email message is one that attempts to dupe the recipient into giving up personal information, usually his or her email username and password.Sometimes these fraudulent messages do a reasonable job of disguising themselves as legitimate messages by including terminology and branding specific to our campus. They usually include the threat of loss of service if you don’t comply with the request.
Our message to UM students and employees is simple:
Never respond to email asking you to provide personal information
The University of Montana will never ask you for personal information by email
How you can help
Campus departments can help with this campaign in a couple ways. The first way is to adhere to the promise that you will never ask students or employees to provide personal information by email. The second way is to help us spread the word. IT has posters, table tents and PowerPoint slides in a variety of designs to communicate the message. If you have bulletin board space, a computer monitor that displays public announcements, or some other channel of communication, and you would like campaign materials, let us know.
