SUBJECT:

Cybersecurity Awareness Alert - March 2016

Protecting Private Information

Every week, individuals and companies of all size lose private information. Scammers too often succeed in having employees provide personal and financial information including Social Security numbers through email requests that look like they come from company executives. An employee with the data storage company Seagate was recently tricked by a disguised email request, leaking W-2 information for "several thousand" employees:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/03/seagate-phish-exposes-all-employee-w-2s

Information leaks of this kind are completely avoidable.

When you get a request for private information: please contact the individual or office making the request to confirm that it is valid. Anyone dealing with private employee information will understand your need to confirm such a request.

If the request is confirmed: work with your department IT to ensure its secure delivery.

If the requester is suspicious or cannot be not confirmed: Forward the imitation email to campus IT Security at abuse@ucsd.edu.

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The Cybersecurity Awareness Alert is delivered to faculty, students, and staff of UC San Diego as part of an effort to increase community awareness of current issues in information and identity security and to provide guidance for the prevention of information loss. For more about information security at UC San Diego, visit
http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/security

The Cybersecurity Awareness Alert is produced by UC San Diego IT Services Security.

Pierre Ouillet Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer Christopher A. Longhurst, MD, MS Chief Information Officer Clinical Professor of Biomedical Information & Pediatrics UC San Diego Health Services Brian DeMeulle Executive Director - Infrastructure & Operations Acting Chief Information Security Officer