Campus News

UK Community: Beware of Phishing Emails

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 21, 2015) — The University of Kentucky community is encouraged to beware of emails requesting your account or personal information, i.e. user ID, password, date of birth, or directing you to click on a link to provide this information. This email message could potentially look very official, simulating being sent from University of Kentucky’s Chief Information Officer, Vince Kellen.

UK Analytics and Technologies (UKAT) strongly recommends that account owners never provide this information or click on any links requesting this information.  Instead, follow these directions to report scam and move spam to the “junk” folder:

1.         Don't click on the link included in the email.

2.         Create 'New Email' and choose the 'Attach Item' function in Outlook.

3.         Select 'Outlook item'.

4.         Choose the folder where the email is located i.e. 'Inbox'.

5.         Select the email and click 'ok'.

6.         The phishing email should appear in your email.

7.         Send it to spam@uky.edu

By taking these steps, you will be forwarding the phishing email as an attachment to the UK computer security team and providing useful information that will be used to prevent similar criminal communications in the future.

UK Analytics and Technologies sends out an email notice when your account password is reaching the expiration point, but the email contains informational material only.  It provides instructions on where your password can be updated, but will never contain a link to click on or request a reply with your account information.

If you are in doubt about the validity of an email message, please complete the steps above or contact UKAT Customer Service (CSC) at 859-218-HELP (4357).  Also, visit the Analytics and Technologies website about phishing scam emails for more important information:  www.uky.edu/ukit/security/abuse.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Harder, 859-323-2396, whitney.harder@uky.edu