‘Tis the season for online scams…
As you contemplate your holiday gift list, online scammers are anticipating your business. Although it’s always a good idea to be mindful of where you do your online shopping, the holiday season is a time where many people get into trouble. Only shop reputable sites. If you aren’t sure about a site, try to find a review of them via Google (not using a link on their own site) and see what experiences others may have had.
Also, beware the phishing emails claiming to be from a site you normally purchase from, such as Amazon, wanting you to verify your credit card or other banking information – especially using a link. Normally, the retailer will ask you to verify information during the purchasing process – not send you an email asking for the information. The only time they should send you a verification link is if you do something like go to their site and chose to change your login or other information. if they are set up for it, they will tell you that you will receive an email and need to follow the instructions in the email. If you receive the email, it will usually say something like “a change has been made to your account if you did not make the change please contact….”. Or, it may require you to click on a link to verify the change you made, followed by taking you back to the website where you would need to re-login to continue.
This time of year it is common for scammers to send out fake emails claiming to be from large retailers. I’ve gotten emails from both large chain stores and credit card companies that I don’t have accounts with asking for some information. The scammers assume that something like 1 in 10 people will have an account with the company and think its a legitimate request. Look carefully at the email. The same characteristics that are in the fake WSU email scams will be present: awkward wording, poor grammar, misspelling, corporate signature wrong, an urgent plea to act now (or threat). If you aren’t sure, go to company’s website the way you normally do – not by using any provided link. If they need the information you will probably find out when you log in. If after visiting your account and finding there is no problem, be sure to block the email sender and mark as junk once you are back in Outlook.
What’s happening with campus IT and video conferencing?
There have been a ton of security upgrades and server migrations on campus. These have occasionally resulted in slow-downs and intermittent authentication issues campus-wide.e And they are still dealing with the flood of phishing emails coming from hacked WSU email accounts. However, it appears that flow is slowing down.
The big thing on the horizon is the scheduled migration of the two AMS bridges into one Super System. This is needed to fix the problem of overextending the current system, and hopefully, stop meetings from dropping. This should also put an end to the confusion over the call-in numbers that seem to change back and forth just before a meeting starts. The bad thing is that during the maintenance, the system will be down. So, beware the week of Dec 11th (finals week). The system will not be available until the changes are complete and all units are tested. They are hoping that it will only take a week to complete the project. They are suggesting that if you have a meeting that week, do it via Skype if possible. They will be able to “manually” set up a meeting if absolutely necessary, but they will need to know ASAP if you have if you have a meeting that needs to go thru polycom. As of today, the head of scheduling said there were no finals needing the system. If you know your class will need the system, make sure the lead for the class contacts scheduling so they can get you set up.
Other items
- Still working on getting the podium for the large conference room from Everet to here
- An adapter for mini-display port to HDMI has been ordered (should work with devices such as Surface Pro and other newer PC laptops).
- We’re looking into getting a guest WiFi router for the conferencing area. This would have a separate password than the others and would change periodically.
- No new word on changes to the phone system.