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UCA PHISHING ALERT

September 18, 2024 at 2:53 PM
Dear Campus Community,

Always Be On Alert For Email Phishing Attacks

The university will never request sensitive information, such as your account password, Social Security number, or financial details, through email. Official university communications are designed to protect your privacy and security, and any message asking for such information is likely a phishing attempt. If you receive an email asking for your password or personal data, do not respond or click any links, as this could compromise your account. Instead, report the email to the university's IT department for further investigation and assistance. Always be cautious and verify the legitimacy of any requests related to your personal information.

The university does not offer job openings via email. Any email claiming to offer a job opportunity directly should be treated with caution, as it may be fraudulent. All legitimate university job openings are posted exclusively on the official job portal at jobs.uca.edu, and applicants are required to submit their applications through that site. If you receive an unsolicited email offering employment, avoid engaging with it and verify the authenticity of any job-related communication by checking the official job listings on the university's website. This ensures a secure and transparent application process.

Some common scenarios include, but are not limited to:

An email received from a supervisor requesting financial information or usernames and passwords
An email appearing to be from the IT department asking you to "verify your email credentials" or to enter account information into a web form
Emails from the IRS, FBI, or other government or law enforcement agency asking for account credentials as part of an "investigation"
These emails often will look official and can include the UCA logo, UCA web addresses, names of actual UCA employees, and can even appear to be sent from an actual UCA email address. Remember that IT will never ask you for your username and password via email. Except in rare cases, you should never send any important financial or personal information (account numbers, usernames, passwords, etc.) through email.

If you receive an email that looks at all suspicious, contact the UCA IT Help Desk. They can confirm whether or not the email is legitimate.

If you suspect that you have received a spoofed email, phishing email, and/or question the authenticity of a request received via email please do the following:

Do not reply to the email or click any of the email's links.
Never give any of your account credentials to anyone via email.
Please report the suspected spoofed email or phishing email to IT by forwarding it to the IT Help Desk.


If you have any questions, please contact the IT Help Desk at 501.450.3107, itsupport@uca.edu, or https://uca.edu/go/itsupport/.

Thank You,

University of Central Arkansas
Division of Information Technology
Burdick Hall
Conway, AR 72035
501-450-3107 | uca.edu/it