IT@ND Cybersecurity

Unauthorised access to an email account is the most common way to steal personal information. SPAM filters are used on all incoming emails to remove possible threats to your account. Postmaster emails are sent regularly for staff to determine safe senders in their contacts.

Make sure emails are from a trusted source and take time to validate the sender. You may need to fully expand the email as some email clients don't automatically show the full email address and recipients.

Trust your gut if it looks Phishy. Don’t Take the Bait. Delete it.

Tips to help you recognise them:

• Request personal information or money
• Encourages you to click on a link or attachment
• A sense of urgency, such as “urgent action required!”
• The message contains poor grammar and spelling
• There are no contact details, or the signature is generic
• Sent from a person or company you haven’t contacted before
• The sender's name does not match their sending address
• If the email looks to be from a known sender but seems unusual or asks you to do something you would not normally do

Your Staff ID card allows access to buildings outside of regular business hours and staff printer access on all SafeQ-enabled devices. An ID card is printed for all current staff. A sticker is added to the back of the card to show current contracted staff.

If you have lost your card, please contact IT to remove the lost card from your account. After your card is removed from the system, visit Student Administration to have your card reprinted. Register your new card to enable access to campus buildings and printers. Note: Please discard any found cards if a new ID has been printed. The system automatically uses the newest card for access to university facilities.

If you’re a frequent traveller or work from home, it is important to be aware of your surroundings and network connection.

Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when using public Wi-Fi (at home or abroad). It is important to note that although complimentary, hotel and airport lounge Wi-Fi are not secure.

• Set up VPN on my device

After returning from travel abroad, monitor your account for unusual activity and run a virus or malware scan on your device. If you suspect your account has been compromised, please contact your IT service desk.

If ever in doubt about an email you have received, please contact IT so they can verify its authenticity. If you think your email account or contact list is compromised, let your colleagues know to prevent further attacks or compromises to accounts

Send the following details to your IT Service Desk

• Sender name or address
• Email details
• Time opened

As a security precaution, IT disable your account until contact is made and your details updated.

Please contact the IT Service Desk if you feel you may have a compromised account or witnessed a Cyber Security incident. Reset your password as soon as possible. Please make IT aware of the following information when logging your incident request:

• Time of compromise
• Location (on or off campus)
• Date of incident
• Type of data involved
• Any known impact
• Link or email information (phishing or SPAM)

Mimecast SPAM filtering applies to all emails sent from external contacts to prevent phishing attacks on our system. Email attachments and URLs are scanned, and any threat found is quarantined. Mimecast identifies these quarantined emails as suspicious and requires further action before being delivered to your inbox.

Quarantined emails show in your inbox under Postmaster.

Log into your Mimecast personal portal to review, release, permit or block any emails held by our SPAM filter.

This type of phishing email scam aims to lure the recipient into the purchase of Gift Cards – e.g. iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, etc.  Typically these emails begins with a short conversational message such as “Are you there?”, or “Can you help me?”.   The email appears to be from a Notre Dame colleague, but is actually sent from an external scammer’s email account.  If the recipient responds, the scammer will reply and the conversation quickly turns into a request to purchase some form of gift card.  Any time an unsolicited email conversation turns into a request to purchase something like a Gift Card, it is very likely to be this scam.  If this happens, please discontinue the conversation and immediately notify the IT Service Desk.

You can also identify these types of scams by carefully examining the sender’s email address.  If it differs from the sender’s normal address, for example: fred.smith.nd.edu.au@gmail.com, again please notify the IT Service Desk.

Emails from imposters are often difficult to spot, as they will try match as close as possible the email address of the person they are impersonating, for example: fred.smith.nd.edu.au@gmail.com

How can you recognise a Phishing or Spam type email?

Here are some simple tips to help you recognise them:

• They will request personal information, money or vouchers;
• Encourage you to click on a link or attachment you do not recognise;
• Purvey a sense of urgency, such as “urgent action required”;
• The message contains poor grammar and/or spelling;
• There are no contact details or the signature is generic;
• It is sent from a person or company you haven’t been in contact with before; and
• The senders name does not match their sending email address.

What else can you do to help?

• Never share your Notre Dame User Name and Password;
• Do not use your Notre Dame credentials for registration of personal social media and/or other personal online accounts;
• Regularly change your University password;
• Don’t use the same password for University and personal online accounts; and
• Always use a strong password, or consider a passphrase (if you are not sure what a passphrase is speak to my team).

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