By Paddy McGeoghegan
The Information Systems and Services (ISS) has not disclosed any further information to the College View on their investigations into a fake email, that was sent to a number of students in the early hours of September 14th .
The email claimed to be from the ISS and urged students to pass on their personal log in details as they were actively trying to eradicate a virus from the server. It is unknown how many students actually passed on their details.
These emails have become more and more common over the years in DCU as hackers actively try to gain students personal information.
Justin Doyle, Staff and Student Services Manager at the ISS, in a university-wide email urged staff and students alike not to be fooled by the email. He said “This email is fake- please ignore it. All emails of this nature are fake. Never share your password.”
The email will be an extremely serious breach of DCU’s code of conduct if it turns out the offence was committed by a student of DCU.
The University code of conduct states: “Users must not jeopardise, in any way, the integrity, performance or reliability of the University’s computing resources. No attempts must be made to circumvent data protection schemes, to uncover security loopholes, to “hack” into systems or to interfere with the intended operation of the computer resources.” Breach of this code can result in “disciplinary action and/or criminal proceedings”.
The incident will remind continuing DCU students of the infamous “Free Chicken and chips” email from last April. The email, claiming to be from the DCU Restaurant stated that the restaurant had been overcharging all year and they would be giving all students free chicken and chips. Hundreds of hungry students turned up looking for their free meal. This specific incident shows how these fake emails or hacking incidents can cause havoc on-campus.
However it is clear that the current email in question was a much more sinister attempt at gaining people’s personal information.
DCU is not the only college currently having problems with hackers. Trinity College Dublin recently had a hacker break into their staff page and creates a page for “Doctor Conan T. Barbarian”. The good Doctor was set to give lectures on “Vengeance for Beginners” and was said to be strongly against the remaking of 1980’s films that were perfectly good in the first place.
The College View would like to remind students that the ISS or anyone else for that matter, will never ask for your personal login details via email. If anyone has passed on their information, contact the ISS immediately on 01-700-5007.
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