[Che-student-staff-list] Be cautious of "Phishing" emails appearing from Blackboard

[Harrington, Michael P]

Hi,

This is always going on but a reminder as the end of the semester approaches that you may get 'fake' emails that appear to come from blackboard or other official university sources that look real.   They may contain links that even appear to go to legitimate Purdue web pages (however the actual URL is most likely NOT a Purdue url if you look at it by hovering your mouse over the link).

Please DO NOT click on links you are unsure of and if you do - DO NOT enter you login and password information on pages you are not 100% sure are legitimate.  If your account is compromised ITAP will lock it and you will have to contact them to have it unlocked.  When in doubt you can forward any questionable email to cheq at ecn.purdue.edu and ask - if the email appears to be from ITAP or Blackboard you can always call ITAP at 765-494-4000 or email them at itap at purdue.edu to verify if the email is legitimate. 

If you have gone to such a site, entered your login info and realize it after the fact (usually because nothing happens), you should immediately change your career account password by going to ITAP's page - itap.purdue.edu  and selecting the "security" item and then "change your password."  

PLEASE NOTE - when changing your password - if you have an exchange email account that you access from your phone or tablet - you MUST shut those devices off or put them in 'airplane' mode before changing your password - otherwise you will get locked out of your account as those devices retry with your 'old' password before you have updated them.  This is a procedure you should now follow every time you change your password if you use your phone or tablet to view Purdue emails.

The main reason this phishing happens, and will continue to happen, is that the 'bad guys' want access to University computers/resources.  Once they have an account they can use they can then log in to systems on campus and reach out to other universities and organizations while appearing to be coming from a legitimate organization (Purdue).  This is why they are now spending a lot of time and effort to create completely fake websites that look like real Purdue sites and make emails that seem real.

Thanks, Mike Harrington  

********************
Mike Harrington
Computer Facilities Manager 
Chemical Engineering
Purdue University
765-494-6428
mph at purdue.edu