Dangerous e-mails targeting K-Staters; don't click!
by T. Ramsey, Computing and Network Services
published June 7, 2005
An IT security memo is being e-mailed to all K-Staters this evening to warn them
not to be duped by fake messages that claim to be from official sources
such as support@ksu.edu, webmaster@k-state.edu, or admin@ksu.edu.
These phishing scams warn that "your account will be suspended" if information is not provided
by going to a specified (fake K-State) website. At least one variation has a virus attachment that, when clicked on,
takes control of your computer and gives it to the hackers.
Several K-Staters have already been tricked into visiting a hacker website
to give up their eID and password.
An example of the fraudulent e-mail circulating at K-State:
Dear Valued Member,
According to our site policy you will have to confirm your
account by the following link or else your account will be
suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.
http://www.k-state.edu/confirm.php?email=victim@k-state.edu
Thank you for your attention to this question. We apologize
for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
K-state Security Department Assistant
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You may have been duped by hackers if you've clicked on a strange attachment, tried to go to a website to
avoid account suspension, or your computer is warning about disabled antivirus or firewall software.
Your computer may be at risk, and it may be putting other K-Staters at risk.
IMMEDIATELY contact your computer support personnel or the IT Help Desk, (785) 532-7722,
helpdesk@ksu.edu.
See these new K-State webpages for more information:
Network Operations Center in the works for K-State
by B. Edwards and R. Becker, Computing and Network Services
published June 7, 2005
More than a year ago, Computing and Network Services began planning a Network Operations Center (NOC)
on the Manhattan campus.
The NOC is currently scheduled to be operational by September 2006. It will be housed in Room 14
in the basement of Hale Library. Renovation of that space began in April and will finish before the
start of the fall semester.
The NOC will provide centralized monitoring of K-State's IT infrastructure -- including networks,
servers, and IT services managed by VPAST IT units. This includes e-mail, K-State’s wired and wireless networks,
KEAS, DNS, network printing, and K-State Online.
Project goals include:
- Real-time status of critical services. Provide continuous updates on availability of services via a webpage.
- Performance monitoring. Get alerts from IT systems to prevent problems before they occur and react quickly
when they do occur. Track problems and ensure resolution within acceptable timeframes, providing better service
to users.
- Capacity planning and trends analysis. Collect, store, and analyze performance data to help predict future
needs and identify trends that may foretell an impending problem.
Once the center is up and running, IT monitoring during the first year will concentrate on CNS-managed systems.
Eventually, all enterprise services will also be monitored to ensure the highest level of availability to the campus.
More about German spam, and K-State spam filtering
by J. Bell, Computing and Network Services
published June 7, 2005. updated June 8, 2005 12:07 p.m.
The May 17 InfoTech Tuesday article on
German e-mail spam
included how to turn on spam filtering for other languages.
When selecting specific languages to filter, if an e-mail is found to
contain a recognizable amount of a foreign language, then its spam score is increased.
This alone is not enough to get the message tagged as spam. There must be other
indications in the message that put the score over the "junk" limit.
K-State e-mail goes through several filtering steps to reduce the amount of spam
that gets to an Inbox. First-stage checking of e-mail (addressed to either @ksu.edu or @k-state.edu)
is against two global RBLs (Realtime Block Lists) and an XBL (Exploits Block List).
If an e-mail is not recognized as spam by any of these lists, it is then filtered through K-State's
own implementation of SpamAssassin.
Shortly after the flood of German spam began, K-State put in a filter to specifically tag
these messages as spam. K-State users who had spam filtering turned on had these messages
automatically delivered to their K-State junk-mail designated folder rather than their Inbox.
For more information, see Spam filtering at K-State.
CHECK conference speaker is Mark Hood
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published June 7, 2005
The keynote address at the Conference on Higher Education Computing in
Kansas (CHECK), entitled "I may not be much, but at least I'm in IT", will
be given by Mark Hood. The presentation is scheduled for June 20 at
12:15 p.m.
in the Memorial Student Union at Washburn University. Hood received a
master's degree in psychology from the University of
Missouri and has more than
13 years experience working in psychiatric hospitals.
Register online at
www.check.gen.ks.us.
| Q/A: IT questions from K-Staters |
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published June 7, 2005
Where can I find K-State's logos?
K-State logo information (and logos) can be found on these sites:
Have a question or comment?
TellTuesday@ksu.edu.
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| Web watch |
Baseball sites
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published June 7, 2005
Can't get away to a baseball game this summer? Learn about the history,
artifacts, baseball headlines, and more about baseball by visiting these sites:
Find a good site? TellTuesday@ksu.edu.
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