Multiple phishing attempts to obtain students’ personal information through Blackboard have been reported to UTA this semester.
As of Tuesday, a notification was on Blackboard warning students that a phishing email was received and disguised to appear like it came from Blackboard. The university-issued alert instructs students to delete the email if they get it.
Jim Bradley, vice president and chief information officer for the Office of Information Technology, did not say how many reports have been made this semester but said they happen “all the time,” in an email.
“We catch some of them, your spam filters catch some of them and, hopefully, you are able to identify any that get through to your inbox,” he said in the email.
Hackers target crowds of people at one time and try to get to information they can use to make money, Bradley said. They’re interested in obtaining personal information like social security numbers, credit card and bank accounts and changing payroll deposits, Bradley said in an email.
Monetary business is not conducted on Blackboard, but the hackers use the site to access other information, such as email accounts they can use for other phishing attacks, Bradley said.
Their purpose is to steal identity by obtaining user names and passwords, said M.K. Raja, Information Systems and Operation Management professor. It’s possible that the same user name and password is used for different sites and once the hacker obtains it, they can hack different accounts, he said.
“Most students think, ‘Well, what can they steal? I don’t have anything,’ but that’s not true, identity is very valuable,” Raja said.
Broadcast communication junior Brianna Thompson said she believes students are not aware of phishing dangers until it’s too late.
“I don’t think people are really concerned until it happens to them,” she said. “We don’t really realize it’s happening.”
The lack of awareness is part of the problem, Raja said. Students must know they are possible targets and must take precaution.
Information like user names and passwords can be used in two ways, Raja said. It can be used to access personal accounts and steal from them, or the information can be sold on underground websites called black sites for $10 to $50 apiece.
The university works to stop phishing, but hackers are constantly working to get around protections, so it is difficult to prevent attacks, Bradley said in the email.
To avoid being hacked, Bradley and Raja said don’t click or download any links or attachments that come in an unexpected email. Instead, see what the real URL is under the link, switch to a browser and type in the URL to navigate it differently.
Raja said even if he receives an unexpected email with a link or attachment from someone he knows, he calls them to make sure they sent it.
Have a strong, complex password with a mixture of characters, Raja advises. To remember it, think of a phrase unique to you and use the first letters of each word in that phrase, capitalizing specific letters, Raja said. If the password is strong enough, hackers will likely give up and move to an easier target.
Don’t use the same password for different accounts, Raja said, and change passwords frequently.
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