Over the past several weeks, Georgia Tech's Office of Information Technology (OIT) has seen an increase in phishing attacks against Georgia Tech students, staff and faculty. OIT reminds users to always check suspicious messages out before opening them. Messages that appear to come from Georgia Tech asking for account or password information will never be valid messages. Messages that come from entities outside Georgia Tech — banks, Netflix, shipping companies, et cetera — should be verified before clicking on any links or opening any attachments.The attacks are taking various forms such as:

• A message that appears to come from Georgia Tech about a "server upgrade" and asks for the user's name, password and date of birth. The reply address is not a Georgia Tech address. This goes against Georgia Tech policy, which never asks user for their password or account information, especially over e-mail.
• A message that appears to come from Netflix reporting a lost disc problem, or Fedex reporting a missing shipment. However, the links point to a malicious website (hover your mouse over them to see, but do not click on the link) or the attachment (zipped) contains malware.
• A message coming from a bank (e.g. Bank of America) that looks legitimate, but clicking on the attachment sends the user to a phishing website.
• A message that appears to come from a legitimate friend claiming to be stuck overseas and needing $500 to pay for a hotel bill.

OIT has posted information on the FAQ website to help users differentiate between legitimate and phishing websites as well as how to get rid of spam/phishing emails.  Details may be found at:http://faq.oit.gatech.edu/content/how-identify-legitimate-websiteand http://faq.oit.gatech.edu/my-gatech-e-mail/spamThank you for helping to keep Georgia Tech safe. If you have any questions/concerns, would like to know about how to set up spam filtering, or if you have responded to a message that you think may have been a phishing attempt, please contact your departmental CSR/IT representative or the Technology Support Center at:http://www.oit.gatech.edu/service/tsc/technology-support-center