The Division of Information Technologies’ offices are located within the Patuxent Building near Stamp Student Union.
The Division of Information Technology warned the university community last night of compromised umd.edu accounts sending false emails that encourage university ID holders to enter confidential information into a provided link.
These emails, which employ a strategy known as “phishing,” have claimed to be from DIT and suggest that recipients follow a link to enter their usernames and passwords to continue their email services. However, DIT clarified in last night’s alert, which was sent just before 7 p.m., that it would never provide a link to a login screen by way of email.
“You should never enter any username and password combination after clicking any link in any email,” DIT advised. “Always navigate to the required website by typing the URL into your Web browser.”
Companies such as Apple and Dropbox have made recent headlines for being used in phishing emails. The Daily Nebraskan reported last week that the University of Nebraska community had been similarly targeted.
In May, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget reported in its annual update on federal information security that 71.9 percent of all incidents reported were attributed to phishing.
DIT asks that anyone in the university community who entered information into the provided links change their university password immediately and contact the help desk at 301-405-1500 or itsc@umd.edu.
For more information about changing a university directory password or on phishing emails, visit DIT’s service center Web page.
