With COVID-19 and associated restrictions remaining prevalent, many malicious actors have used the opportunity to update their phishing email campaigns. The article linked below explains some of the ways malicious actors try and trick people into giving up their information or even into installing malware.

The article states that many of the emails will use subject lines like coronavirus, work reopening, rescheduled meetings, stimulus payments, and new vacation policies. Malicious actors also craft themed emails to look like popular social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.

For LinkedIn they noticed subject lines "You appeared in new searches this week," "People are looking at your LinkedIn profile," "Please add me to your LinkedIn Network," and "LinkedIn Password Reset."

 Facebook sees phishing emails using subject lines like "Your Friend Tagged a Photo of You" and "Your friend tagged you in photos on Facebook." Phishing campaigns from Twitter were said to try and entice people with subject lines similar to "Someone has sent you a Direct Message on Twitter."

Other subjects included "A login alert for Chrome on Motorola Moto X," "New voice message at 1:23AM," and "55th Anniversary and Free Pizza". The article also describes some general subjects to look out for:

• Password Check Required Immediately

• Vacation Policy Update

• Branch/Corporate Reopening Schedule

• COVID-19 Awareness

• Coronavirus Stimulus Checks

• List of Rescheduled Meetings Due to COVID-19

• Confidential Information on COVID-19

• COVID-19 - Now airborne, Increased community transmission

• Fedex Tracking

• Your meeting attendees are waiting
  
  

According to the article, the most common subject lines within phishing emails found “in-the-wild” in the last quarter were:

• Microsoft: Abnormal log in activity on Microsoft account

• Chase: Stimulus Funds

• HR: Company Policy Notification: COVID-19 - Test & Trace Guidelines

• Zoom: Restriction Notice Alert

• Jira: [JIRA] A task was assigned to you

• HR: Vacation Policy Update

• Ring: Karen has shared a Ring Video with you

• Workplace: [company_name] invited you to use Workplace

• IT: ATTENTION: Security Violation

• Earn money working from home
  
  

At UMBC some of the most common subject lines for phishing emails seen recently have been “UMBC JOB OPPORTUNITY”, “CORNERSTONE STUDENT JOB OFFER”, “CORNERSTONE JOB OFFER”, “UMBC COVID-19 INFORMATION”, “UMBC COVID-19 PART TIME JOB OFFER” and “WORK FROM HOME.”

If you do receive any email that you suspect is a scam, please do not click on any URL or reply. Either of those actions confirms to the sender that your email address is valid. Please forward the message (with the email headers) to security@umbc.edu and delete the message.

How do I forward full email headers?

https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970

For more information, please check out: 

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/watch-out-for-these-subject-lines-in-email-phishing-attacks/

The email below is an example of a recent job scam phishing email that has been going around campus. This email, like many other job scam emails, tries to trick users into giving up their personal information like the users address, phone number, and personal email address.

If you do receive this or any other email that you suspect is a scam, please do not click on any URL or reply. Either of those actions confirms to the sender that your email address is valid. Please forward the message (with the email headers) to security@umbc.edu.

How do I forward full email headers?

https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970

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MEEC recently awarded contracts to two vendors, Examity and PSI, for On-line Exam Proctoring Services.  The master contracts were awarded through a competitive RFP process.  On-line Exam Proctoring Services

We’re so excited to start collaborating with the Association of Black Artists over the next few weeks to further discussion of Maurice Berger’s Race Stories. This week, ABA Vice President and cinematic artist, Manal Murangi, has reflected on “Holding A Mirror to Race,” discussing artists’ intentionality when prompting viewers to reflect on their art, how curatorial intent contributes to the larger issue in the art field of curating versions of reality that uphold racism, and the role of and pressure on artists to create work that teaches viewers about history and racial inequality. 

Check out her full reflection here: https://tinyurl.com/yyuzxwm9

SkillSoft Spotlights focus on just-in-time online learning to help you more masterfully manage yourself personally and professionally, improve your effectiveness in managing your work, and support you in skillfully leading your teams. Each course is 30 minutes or less and is curated to provide tools, strategies, and practices to accelerate your success.

This week's spotlight course is Handling Team Conflict (30 min)

SkillSoft Spotlights focus on just-in-time online learning that supports you in navigating complex challenges in personal and professional life, helps you to increase your effectiveness, and to improve your relationships. Each course is 30 minutes or less and is curated to provide tools, strategies, and practices to accelerate your success.

This week's spotlight course is Difficult People: Strategies to Keep Everyone Working Together (31 min).

While it's best to get personally fit for dealing with difficult people – that is, managing your own emotions and using self-management techniques – there are also interpersonal strategies and skills you need when working on a team with difficult people.

In this course, you’ll learn strategies for managing difficult people that involve redirecting their behavior toward your work goals. You’ll discover ways of working together effectively with negative people by giving appropriate feedback when needed. You’ll also learn how to make your collaboration work with difficult people more productive by managing conflicts professionally.