THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY AUGUST 23, 2000
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 2008
NEWS
CAMPUS
3A
Security office sends warning about fraudulent e-mails
BY HALEY JONES
hjones@kansan.com
For the first time, the KU Information Technology Security Office sent an e-mail alert to all University faculty and students Aug. 4 that warned of a spear phishing e-mail targeting KU network users. The e-mail directed KU network users to verify their usernames and passwords to keep their accounts from going dormant.
Bill Myers, director of assessment and outreach for Information Services, said the office received reports of e-mails appearing to come from "KU Online Services" with an address of onlineservices@ku.edu and a non-KU reply address.
Julie Fugett, information security analyst for Information Services, said this was the first e-mail warning the office sent to avoid filling the inboxes of University students and faculty.
"You cry wolf too many times and people will be like, 'there they go again.'" Fugett said.
Myers said the office received hundreds of reports a week of phishing messages and thousands of attacks on the University's network.
Fugett said some people even reported the office's alert e-mail to abuse@ku.edu as spam.
"People really hate getting these things," Fugett said. "They get tired of it."
Fugett said fewer than 10 people replied to the last spear phishing message, which the office considered a threat.
Fugett said spear phishing messages were first reported to the office last March. She said each round of phishing attacks looked a little different.
what's phishing?
Phishing is a fraudulent e-mail that looks like it was sent by a legitimate business to get the recipient to give out private information.
Spear phishing is a fraudulent e-mail targeted at a specific person that looks like it was sent by a person or organization familiar to the recipient.
"Since people change their tactics, we are playing catch-up to update our defenses," Fugett said.
Fugett said after four to five reports of a specific phishing message, she would begin to draft an alert to post at the office's Web site, www.security.ku.edu, and its beseKUre blog site, www.besekure. ku.edu.
Links to the security alerts are also posted on student portals and occasionally on Outlook Web Access.
The office works loosely with the University Privacy Office to handle phishing and spear phishing messages and their potential threats. Jane Rosenthal, privacy coordinator and custodian of records for the privacy office, said her office handled University information security issues.
"Security and privacy go hand in hand," Rosenthal said. "If there were a phishing message of some flavor and it gave out University information, we would step in."
— Edited by Kelsey Hayes
How to recognize a phishing e-mail
INTERNATIONAL Florida deals with wildlife left in storm Fay's wake
MELBOURNE, Fla. — As if a fourth straight day of rain from Tropical Storm Fay wasn't enough, weary residents are now dealing with quintessentially Floridian fallout: alligators, snakes and other critters driven from their
National Guardsman Steve Johnson was wading through hip-deep water Wednesday night when his flashlight revealed an alligator drifting through a sea of flooded mobile homes.
swampy lairs into flooded streets, backyards and doorsteps.
"I said, "The heck is that?" and there was an alligator floating by," Johnson said. "I took my flashlight
and was like, 'You've got to be kidding me, a big old alligator swimming around here.'$^{68}$
The erratic storm has dumped more than 2 feet of rain along parts of Florida's low-lying central Atlantic coast this week. The system continued its slow, wet march Thursday.
Associated Press
INTERNATIONAL
Global warming gives far north new sea route
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BARROW, Alaska — Rapidly melting ice on Alaska's Arctic is opening up a new navigable ocean in the extreme north, allowing oil tankers, fishing vessels and even cruise ships to venture into a realm once trolled mostly by indigenous hunters.
The Coast Guard expects so much traffic that it opened two temporary stations on the nation's northernmost waters, anticipating the day when an ocean the size of the contiguous United States could be ice-free for most of the summer.
"We have to prepare for the world coming to the Arctic," said Rear Adm. Gene Brooks, commander of the Coast Guard's Alaska district.
Scientists say global warming has melted the polar sea ice each summer to half the size it was in the 1960s, opening vast stretches of water. Last year, it thawed to its lowest level on record.
The rapid melting has raised speculation that Canada's Northwest Passage linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans could one day become a regular shipping lane. And there is a huge potential for natural resources in a region that may contain as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.
S'ill, conservative estimates indi- cate the Arctic Ocean will be icefree in the summer within 20 years, although some scientists believe that will occur much sooner.
But scientists caution that it could be centuries before the Arctic is completely ice-free all year round.
As it thaws, the receding ice has made ocean travel along Alaska's northern coast increasingly alluring, but ships can still be trapped
by ice.
Earlier in August, three oil industry vessels bound for Canada became stuck in ice about 60 miles north of Point Barrow. The Coast Guard sent the icebreaker Healy to help, but before it could arrive from 300 miles away, the wind shifted and pushed the ice apart, freeing the vessels.
"They were able to get away," Brooks said. "The problem with this ice is it's very unpredictable."
Because of such risks, the Coast Guard established temporary bases this month in Barrow, the country's highest-latitude town, and at the North Slope's Prudhoe Bay, the nation's largest oil field. The bases will operate for a few weeks while Guard officials evaluate the need for the agency's services.
"It's amazing to me when I go to the pole how thin the ice is, huge open spots of water in some areas," he said. "Before, you spent more time getting there and more time in the ice. Wed have helicopters looking for breaks in the water for us."
The thaw has added urgency to the race among neighboring nations to claim a piece of the North Pole's resources. The U.S. is compiling mapping data that could bolster any claims for drilling rights.
Chuck Cross has been leading excursions to the North Pole with his Bend, Ore.-based Polar Cruises since 1991, and he's noticed a big change over the years.
The Northwest Passage is also increasingly popular with tourists.
Many countries have launched scientific expeditions, hoping to take advantage of a provision in international law that allows nations to claim rights over their continental shelf beyond the normal boundary of 200 nautical miles, if the claim can be supported with geologic evidence.
that the increasing volume of ship traffic brings greater potential for oil spills, lost boaters and other mishaps.
"We have to ask ourselves whether we're prepared for these ships coming to our shores," said Mead Treadwell, who chairs the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. He testified in Congress this summer about the need to build new Coast Guard icebreakers to better protect traffic in its Arctic waterways.
The Coast Guard is concerned
Before the Coast Guard opened its base in Barrow, the nearest station where ships could stop for fuel and provisions was Alaska's Kodiak Island, almost 1,000 miles away.
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