USU people are continually receiving bogus email messages trying to fool them into giving the bad guys their A-number and password. Any message apparently from IT at USU that does not conform to ALL of the following seven rules is probably a phishing scam that should be deleted without response:
1) We will never ask for your password in email. In fact, we will never send any unsolicited request for your password, via email or phone. (This is true of banks, credit card companies, paypal, ebay, amazon, IRS, etc, as well.) If you have given away your password, please change it NOW at https://id.usu.edu/Password
2) We will always identify ourselves and give contact information for the IT ServiceDesk (see below). We will not use vague, generic terms that you haven't heard in use on campus, like "the webmail team", "the usu.edu team" or "usu.edu Customer Care".
3) We will always send our message from usu.edu addresses and expect replies to usu.edu addresses.
4) We will always send important information in the main body of the message, not in attachments.
5) Be sure that any web page you are directed to is really at usu.edu. Having USU logos and familiar page layouts is not enough; check the URL for "usu.edu" right before the first single slash.
6) We will never issue instructions that you must follow on short notice with a serious, irrevolkable penalty. Important changes in service are announced multiple times, in multiple ways (email, website, post cards, news releases).
7) We will try our hardest to use better grammar, punctuation and spelling than you see in most phish messages.
Be an Internet Skeptic!
If you read a bogus message within hours of its delivery, please alert us by forwarding it to the IT Security Team (security@usu.edu). However, if it's more than a day old, someone else probably beat you to it.
IT Service Desk
http://it.usu.edu/
Location: JQL 108
Phone: 435.797.HELP (4357)
Toll Free: 1.877.878.8325
Email: servicedesk@usu.edu
Remember the 8 Steps to Protect Your Computer including:
