The University of Texas at Austin Police Department (UTPD) is investigating a recent string of “phishing scams” that targeted UT employees.
Several UT employees recently received maliciously intended e-mails from what they thought were university departments at UT.
UTPD Officer Jimmy Moore said the investigation is ongoing, and said he is unable to provide specific details about the content of the emails, including information about which employees were affected. For now, Moore warned the public to be careful when opening e-mails from unrecognized sources.
“There are quite a few different scams out there, with different ways to trick you,” Moore said. “The main issue is being aware and recognizing the e-mail is not normal.”
Moore suggested students and faculty not open any links from unknown sources, and advised against the sharing of any personal information -such as credit card or bank account numbers, on any suspicious e-mails.
McCombs Today published an article on its official website on August 21 discussing UT researcher’s efforts to stop “spamming” and shared the potential hazards of “spam” mail.
According to the article, malicious e-mails can “[cause] major problems across the world in the form of wasted time, dangerous viruses, stolen identities, and large financial costs to fix the problem.”
In the article, UT’s Center for Research in Electronic Commerce (CREC) Director Andrew Whinston said the source of many “spam” mails are connected to “computers compromised by botnets or phishing.”
“UT faculty and departments all have UT e-mail addresses,” Moore said. “If you’re uncertain about whether the e-mail is from UT or not, get in contact with the school to verify.”