A fast-spreading spam e-mail caused problems on campus last week. Some students and staff clicked on a malicious link in a phishing e-mail and subsequently gave a hacker access to their Outlook cloud e-mail accounts. The criminal proceeded to use their e-mail addresses and mailbox to spam all their contacts. Since it was sent from a @sun address, receivers of the spam didn’t suspect anything. (An example of the e-mail, with dangerous links removed, is shown below)
Unfortunately, due to the mass e-mails sent from these mailboxes, Microsoft automatically blocked the users’ accounts and they were unable to access e-mail.
Please remember to look for the general characteristics of a phishing e-mail before you click on links in e-mail. Just because it’s sent from a @sun address , it does not mean it’s safe.
If you suddenly don’t have access to your e-mail, contact the IT helpdesk (x4367). If you’ve clicked on a suspicious link, change your password immediately.
From: Known address <knownaddress1@sun.ac.za>
Sent: 05 October 2016 12:26 PM
To: SU address <knownaddress@sun.ac.za>
Subject: PI Doc copy
Please confirm PI doc copy below using Google documents
for your account to be credited.
Kind regards
Tags: Outlook365, phishing, spam