The University of Michigan has become the target of a new type of sophisticated and malicious email attack on university email accounts. According to a press release from the Ann Arbor-based institution, some U-M email users have twice received a message during this academic year that includes a logo associated with a real, albeit former, university organization. Known as phishing, the email attack is utilized by those seeking to gather personal information from users. The university advised users to a website in its system to see an updated list of phishing messages received by employees.
“This message attracted responses from at least 30 users and possibly others we don’t know about. We contacted those we could identify to alert them it was a scam,” says Will Rhee, one of the university’s user advocates. “Not everyone who responded gave away their real password.”
Besides using the old U-M Information Technology Central Services logo, this e-mail also employed a convincing re-direction: any user who did click the link was directed to an exact duplication of U-M’s authentication page. After entering a username and password — which was captured — the user was then redirected to U-M’s real page, as though the information had perhaps been mistyped.
This latest attack demonstrates how cyber-criminals are looking for fresh and new ways to scam users, Information and Technology Services officials say.
“We can’t say it enough — users must be careful about what they click on,” Rhee says. “Some people may feel like they don’t have much of value to protect in their e-mail, file space, or on their personal computer. However, stolen passwords are valuable because they are used to leverage U-M computing resources to facilitate crimes.
“Your uniqname and password unlock access to networked resources that criminals want (e-mail, storage, network bandwidth, central processing unit, etc.) in order to be able to commit crimes and obfuscate who is responsible.”
The report suggests that student accounts are widely targeted because, “Compromised webmail accounts may give phishers another foothold in students’ personal computers, since compared with other unsolicited e-mail content, spam e-mails would gain credibility when coming from peers, especially if messages are sent from a university webmail address.”
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