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The following notice was just sent to the Deans, Directors, and Chairs (DDC) list. /Tom Earlier today, Michigan State University was the target of a "phishing" attack. (Phishing is when fraudulent e-mail is sent in an attempt to collect personal information.) In this instance a number of students, faculty, and staff received e-mail that was designed to look like it was sent from MSU's e-mail team. The e-mail claimed that the "MSU team" was upgrading a "database and e-mail account center" and asked recipients to "confirm your e-mail identity." THE ACNS E-MAIL TEAM AT MSU WILL NEVER SEND E-MAIL REQUESTING PERSONAL INFORMATION. People should be suspicious any time they are asked by e-mail for personal information, especially if they did not initiate the contact. Note that this attack is not an indication of a data compromise; the e-mail addresses used were likely gathered from publicly available places such as the faculty/staff and student directories. And, although we cannot prevent being targeted by phishers, we are taking this opportunity to make the MSU community aware of the dangers inherent in phishing attacks. If you responded to this phishing attack, please contact the ACNS Help Desk immediately at (517) 432-6200 or send an e-mail to [log in to unmask] To learn more about phishing, please see http://techbase.msu.edu/article.asp?id=4194 Please pass this information on to others in your unit. Thanks. Tom Davis, Director Academic Computing and Network Services