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Coronarvirus Employees Resources

ITS

ITS has some tools that will come in handy in this time of increased teleworking and total online instruction. By now you should have seen communications regarding VPN and softphones. Here are some tips to make your experience a positive one.

Telecommunications

  • Softphones should be reserved for administrative use and those who are covering a call center. Licenses are limited.
  • Faculty who need to communicate with each other or with students should use call forwarding, voicemail to email, and/or Teams calling.
  • Install Teams on your mobile device for ease of use
  • Google Voice and other third-party applications are unsupported and unsecure. Calls, voicemail, or email being routed through these services may violate FERPA regulations and expose you and our students to data loss.

VPN

Only use VPN when using these applications

Don’t use VPN for

The DUCK (the student- and faculty-facing application that is, application screenshot for clarity:https://monosnap.com/file/51TEIODBKo99qV3A4Fio1t1UoW0TZf )

  • Email
  • Teams
  • Office 365
  • D2L
  • Teaching class
  • Watching Netflix
  • Other entertainment applications

Do use VPN when conducting any university business on an open wifi network, such as Starbucks or a hotel room.

You do not need VPN when using cellular networks, except for the above application.

IT Security

Stimulus Scam

Threat actors have ramped up attacks to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic. In the last 45 days over 4,000 new domains containing a variant of COVID-19 have been established and it is our guess that the majority are owned by these threat actors!

Identity thieves are posing as representatives from the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, and other government agencies sending e-mails regarding the economic stimulus package, charities, cures, and several others.

The federal government will not contact anyone for financial or other personal information through an email, text, or phone call. NO ONE.

Think before you click - S.C.A.M.

  • Stop do notclick on any links within the email. If the tone and grammar sound unusual for your business, it’s likely a scam.
  • Contact -- State and Federal agencies will not call, email, or text to collect information.
  • Alert -- Be aware of how the email is written. Scammers often use suspect language and misspelled words.
  • Make sure to forward a copy to The HUB

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has issued a public service announcement: https://www.ic3.gov/media/2020/200320.aspx and has provided links to legitimate government agencies.

Gift Card Scam

Scammers are getting creative with hybrid gift card / CEO Fraud scams. There is a massive campaign underway where they are impersonating an executive and urgently asking for gift cards to be bought. Threat actors will ask you to purchase the gift cards – most commonly Google Play, Steam Wallet, Amazon, Apple iTunes or Walmart cards.

How Do Gift Card Scams Work?

  • The email will usually impersonate the President, Vice President or other executive within the organization and may be sent to one or more recipients. In many cases, the email may indicate it is “Sent from my iPad” or “Sent from my iPhone” which creates a sense of urgency.
  • Targets tend to be office managers, executive assistants, and other staff members. The email will ask the recipient to do them a quick favor, keep it confidential, reply (to the scammer) and purchase a specific number of gift cards or a certain dollar amount. The purchase amount can total hundreds or thousands of dollars. Specific purchase instructions are usually detailed in the email.
  • From there, the victim will be asked to scratch off the back of each card to show the pin, scan the card, then send pictures of the scanned cards. That’s all the scammer needs to make purchases online.

What Next? (SCAM)

  • STOP and do not respond to the email or click on any links within the email. Be aware of how the email is written because scammers often use suspect language. If the tone and grammar sound unusual for your business, it’s likely a scam.
  • CONTACT the individual from within your organization that “sent” the email to determine its validity; do this via phone, in-person or a separate email.
  • ALERT others within your organization of the scam email; it may have been sent to more than one person.
  • MAKE sure send a copy to the HUB.

Contact us:
For support please contact The HUB at (678) 466-4357 (HELP) or email thehub@clayton.edu.