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OFFICE 365 FAQs

Thursday, September 29th, 2016

  1. What is Office 365?
  2. Can I access e-mail during the migration?
  3. Can I use my current Outlook client? Which Outlook clients are supported?
  4. Does this move include my .pst folders?
  5. Do I have to set up Outlook on my cell phone again?
  6. Why is Outlook suddenly asking me for a password?
  7. I am trying to access a colleague’s calendar and Outlook is irresponsive.
  8. Why is Outlook slower than before?
  9. What are the settings for Linux?

What is Office 365?
It is a cloud-based service, meaning that university data will be stored off campus property at data centres owned and managed by Microsoft. Benefits to the university include: improved features with new releases, upgrades built in, reliability, availability, and price–exist because we are taking this approach.

Can I access e-mail during the migration?
Yes, during the migration you won’t notice anything different. If Outlook is open, you will see a notification when your migration is complete, requesting you to quit and restart Outlook.

Can I use my current Outlook client? Which Outlook clients are supported?
As long as your Outlook client is from Microsoft Office 2010 or later, then it is compatible with Office365. Earlier versions of Office Outlook are not supported. It is also advised that anyone using Microsoft Office 2010 update to Office 2013 or Office 2016. Office 2010 predates Office365 and it will not give you the best experience going forward.

Does this move include my .pst folders?
You can continue to use the PST files as you have been using post mailbox migration, or take advantage of the 50GB mailbox space and re-import them into your Exchange mailbox. PST files are stored locally on your computer or a mapped drive and therefore cannot be imported during the mailbox migration process. They are not actually a part of your mailbox or stored on the Exchange mailbox servers. They are standalone files stored locally.

Office 365 mailboxes will include 50 GB of storage which should allow you to import mail from your PST files into Office 365 after it is converted.

Do I have to set up Outlook on my cell phone again?
For most mobile devices no new setup is required. Users will only be informed if servers have been changed or if the username has to be changed in Settings to username@sun.ac.za and no longer stb/username. Full documentation on setting this up is available on our self-help site.

It is possible that older versions of Windows Mobile might have to be set up again.

  • iOS – the change will take place behind the scenes and you shouldn’t need to do anything. If you need to reconfigure your email account.
  • Android – On some models, you may simply be prompted to Activate in order to redirect your mail server to the Microsoft Office 365 server.
  • On other models/manufacturers, you will need to delete your existing mail account and recreate it with the server: “office365.com“.

Why is Outlook suddenly asking me for a password?
Your SU identity is stored in the cloud with a secure connection. This connection goes from your computer, through your local server to the secure servers in the cloud. To be able to create this secure, trust relationship, a password has to be entered.

When Outlook prompts you for a password, make sure you fill in your full e-mail address in the username field (username@sun.ac.za), enter your password and tick the Remember my credentials option. Although we discourage users to save their passwords, this is the one password you are allowed to store.

I am trying to access a colleague’s calendar and Outlook is irresponsive.
During the migration process some services might not work as smoothly as before, that is until everyone has been migrated to the cloud.

Unfortunately calendars of users who have been migrated and those who haven’t will have difficulty connecting to each other. IT will move users per department, which means that departmental calendar access will be possible. As soon as all departments and staff have been migrated, full access to calendars will be restored.

Why is Outlook slower than before?
Now that your e-mail is in the cloud, it has a further route to travel to the server. Therefore, your e-mail might seem a bit slower. Fortunately, the university has an excellent internet connection to servers and any slowness will be limited to the minimum. If any sluggishness is experienced, it will soon be ironed out.

What are the settings for Linux?

For our Linux users, the following settings can be used:

Incoming: IMAP

  • Server: outlook.office365.com
  • Username: username@sun.ac.za
  • Password: <normal campus password>
  • Security: SSL/TLS
  • Port: 993
  • Authentication: normal password

Outgoing: SMTP

  • Server: smtp.office365.com
  • Username: username@sun.ac.za
  • Password: <normal campus password>
  • Security: STARTTLS
  • Port: 587
  • Authentication: normal password

 

 

Another phishing e-mail

Wednesday, September 28th, 2016

We have noticed numerous phishing scams targeted at SU mailboxes. Please note that these, like the example below, are NOT from the IT Helpdesk and are only an attempt to source your username and password. 

You will not be asked by IT to verify your account, we have automatic ways to do this. Secondly, our e-mails will be branded and both in Afrikaans and English. Hopefully they will also have less spelling mistakes than most of these phishing e-mails. 

We realise that it might be confusing, but if in any doubt, please e-mail us (help@sun.ac.za or 021 808 4367) to make sure whether these e-mails are legitimate.


From: SUN Support [mailto:phishing@dummyaddress.com]
Sent: 28 September 2016 09:40 AM
Subject: Notice

Dear User

To re-validate your mail account please click on the below link and enter your user id and password for the upgrade of your Account and Maintenance, Very Important. 

Click here

Your Mail account will be permanently terminated in a short time for failure to adhere to our urgent notice.

Thank you for your cooperation.

SUN Mail Support

© 2016 Stellenbosch University. All Right Reserved.

 

Dangerous Phishing Scam: ITS Service Desk

Monday, September 26th, 2016

Please note that there is currently a new, and dangerous phishing scam making the rounds throughout the university.

Unfortunately, several *internal* e-mail addresses, including students and personnel that were earlier compromised, are being used to spread the phishing scam. With both students and personnel being distracted by the FeesMustFall protest actions both within the faculty and at the Main Campus, they are less alert to the ongoing threat from outside and this seems to have resulted in a number of personnel and student account details being “hijacked”and used.

The mail comes from a university address, so victims think that it has to be legitimate, which heightens the threat.

Below is the phishing scam. Please do not respond to it. The criminals are trying to trick you into providing them with your e-mail details and password. These are used to gain access to the account which is then used to propagate the scam further and gain access to more personal data within the university.

The dangerous part of the phishing scam has been deactivated by removing the link to the phishers server currently in Brazil and redirecting them to an internal page.


From: Compromised University Address <noreply@sun.ac.za>
Sent: Wednesday, 21 September 2016 05:59
Subject: ITS Service Desk

With the strengthening off our security system and improving your mailing experience, We have detected your mail settings are out of date. To enhance computer system security and comply with federal audit requirements, ITS requires all Sever Users to update their account , kindly click ITS to update your account to the latest OutlookWebApp . Sign in and automatically update your mailbox by filling out the requirements correctly.

___________________
Sincerely,
ITS Service Desk
Click Here

[ARTICLE BY DAVID WILES]

Phishing scam disguised as a mail about a “Web-mail update”

Thursday, August 11th, 2016

The scammers never stop trying to fool people and this particular version of a phishing scam is NOT new. This is the third time this year that this version of a typical phishing scam has arrived in university mail accounts. Last time it fooled several people, personnel and students alike, so there IS a danger.

I have attached a screenshot of the scam and highlighted the tricks that the criminals use to fool us. See if you can spot them yourselves…

  1. Sent from a compromised account, not in South Africa (In this case a university in the USA)
  2. It is not addressed to you… Just a “Dear Webmail user”
  3. The amounts displayed that Webmail account have are incorrect. Stellenbosch Students have 1Tb of storage on their Office365 accounts. Personnel currently has 500Mb by default.
  4. Large letters telling you the “CLICK HERE” to “”update” your account. The link does not go to a Stellenbosch site, but a server under the control of the scammers elsewhere.
  5. Threatening language to bully you into complying with their scam.

webmail-scam

So how do you tell the difference between a phishing message and a legitimate message? Unfortunately, there is no one single technique that works in every situation, but there are 10 things that you can look for:

  1. The message contains a mismatched URL – If the hyperlinked address is different from the address that is displayed, the message is probably fraudulent or malicious.
  2. URLs contain a misleading domain name – The last part of a domain name is the most telling. If the links do NOT end with SUN.AC.ZA, then it is a phishing scam.
  3. The message contains poor spelling and grammar – with the growth of SMS, WhatsApp and social media, poor spelling and grammar have become the norm, but bad grammar will never come from Information Technology.
  4. The message asks for personal information – No matter how official an email message might look, it is always a bad sign if the message asks for personal information. Your bank doesn’t need you to send them your account number. They already know what that is.
  5. The offer seems too good to be true – There is an old saying that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you receive a message from someone unknown to you who is making big promises, the message is probably a scam.
  6. You didn’t initiate the action – If you get a message informing you that you have won a contest you did not enter, you can be sure that the message is a scam.
  7. You’re asked to send money to cover expenses – One telltale sign of a phishing email is that you will eventually be asked for money. If that happens, you can be sure that it’s a scam.
  8. The message makes unrealistic threats – If a message makes unrealistic threats, it’s probably a scam.
  9. The message appears to be from a government agency – Phishing artists who want to use intimidation don’t always pose as a bank. Sometimes they’ll send messages claiming to have come from a law enforcement agency, SARS, or the SA Police , or just about any other entity that might scare the average law-abiding citizen.
  10. Something just doesn’t look right – casino security teams are taught to look for anything that JDLR—Just Doesn’t Look Right. This same principle almost always applies to email messages.

[ARTICLE BY DAVID WILES]

 

Email from “IT” a scam

Friday, July 15th, 2016

 Phishing scams disguised as an e-mail from The IT Admin Desk, asking you to upgrade your e-mail, are nothing new. This week two more of these e-mails, from the same source, have been sent to SU staff’s mailboxes. One is from the ADMIN TEAM and another from IT SERVICE DESK.

Both e-mails ask you to “log in” to update or verify your account, using the link included. Both are sent from compromised e-mail accounts from Minnesota and Iowa educational institutions. One diverts to a server controlled by scammers in Brazil and the other California. However, both use a forged “login page” and the same details.

Do not respond to these e-mails or go to the site given in the e-mail. Do not fill in your username, password or other details on any site. Stellenbosch University Information Technology has no need for users to provide user names and passwords on any site other than www.sun.ac.za/useradm, where you can manage your network account. We are also able to upgrade or migrate your e-mail account without asking you to assist.

Our e-mails will always be branded and in Afrikaans and English. If you are unsure about an e-mail you received, speak to your local computer expert or ask the IT Service Desk (021-8084367 or helpinfo@sun.ac.za).

Here is an example of the phishing mail: 

From: I, Amscammer

Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2016 5:56 AM

To: 1,Amscammer

Subject: ADMIN TEAM/IT SERVICE DESK/IT HELPDESK/IT SUPPORT/WEBMAIL ADMIN (and all variations you could think of) 

Dear E-mail User:- 

Take note of this important update that our new webmail has been improved with a new messaging system from Owa/outlook which also include faster usage on e-mail, shared calendar,web-documents and the New 2016 Anti-Spam Version. 

Please use the link below to complete your update for our new Owa/outlook improved webmail.

Log on to Outlook Web Access<http://iam.aspammer.com> to update your mailbox.

ITS Help Desk
ADMIN TEAM
©Copyright 2016 Microsoft Outlook
All Right Reserved.

[INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY DAVID WILES]

 

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