SECURITY ALERT: Phishing scam targeting NWU Office 365 accounts

CSIT has noted a new phishing scam arriving in NWU mailboxes.  This new scam is specifically targeting Office 365 accounts and appears to be widespread. 

The new scam presents itself as an email message from “E-mail Security” and has the Subject line “Action Required <your email address>: Failure Delivery Notice”.  The body of the message claim that Office 365 has failed to deliver 3 of your sent messages due to a scheduled maintenance opteration.  It then provides an embedded link labeled “Review Messages” and invites you to decide whether those messages should be resent.  The message closes with an elaborate copyright and disclaimer message. 

Needless to say, the message does not originate from either Microsoft or from NWU Office 365 administrators.  The actual sender email address varies, likely using compromised accounts or spoofed addresses to evade message filters.  The embedded link leads does not to any Microsoft or NWU site, but rather to a “screen scrape” of an Office 365 logon page into which your email address has already been entered; the screen prompts for a password.  Were you to enter a password it would be collected into a database and you would have compromised the security of your account. 

If you see such a message in the NWU mailbox, please delete it immediately and DO NOT FOLLOW the embedded link!  If you have already seen this message and mistakenly accepted the invitation to follow the link AND entered your password on the target site, then your NWU Office 365 account has been compromised and is no longer secure.  In that case, please change your Office 365 password immediately and report the security breach to CSIT.  In addition, check your Office 365 email settings to assure that no unwanted filters or forwarding rules have been created in your account. 

If you need help to change your password, check your account settings or with other issues, you can contact CSIIT either via Footprints (https://footprints.nebrwesleyan.edu), by phone to 402-465-7777 or in person at Smith-Curtis 109.