Important Data Security Reminder
- January 17th, 2018
- in Uncategorized
FAIT regularly receives reports of phishing attacks taking place through email. Phishing is an attempt to solicit sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, social security numbers, credit cards, etc. While phishing through email has been common for several years, it is increasingly evident that the phishing attacks are becoming more sophisticated and difficult to detect. Basically, the “bad guys” are getting better at what they do.
FAIT currently has preventive measures in place to protect against phishing schemes, and we are researching additional safeguards to implement. With this being said, the best way to protect against phishing schemes is for each of us to exercise extreme caution when providing personal information online. Typically phishing schemes are only successful when someone is lured into providing personal information to a fake source (website, email, PDF, etc.) that appears legitimate. Be sure you know that the source is legitimate and trustworthy before providing any sensitive information online.
It is extremely important to remember that you should never provide your FA network username and password to any online source or in response to email solicitation, even if the email comes from someone within UA. If you receive a request for sensitive information from someone within UA, we suggest calling the individual directly to discuss the request. Also, please know that someone from the FAIT will never send you an email requesting that you provide network username and passwords. If you receive any such request, please feel free to forward to FAIT (Mike Largin, mlargin@fa.ua.edu) and delete immediately.
Thank you for your help in protecting the sensitive data that we deal with every day within Financial Affairs. If you ever have any questions or concerns related to data security, please do not hesitate to contact FAIT or our campus Chief Security Officer (Ashley Ewing, aewing@fa.ua.edu).