Campus technology is working to restore problems after students receive several suspicious emails.
The emails were sent Dec. 10 with links to sites that compromise personal information.
Tim Lofgren, United Communications engineer, sent an email to students this morning warning them to not click on the emails and advising them to reach out to campus tech if they already have.
“OCU is not in the habit of sending out emails to students, faculty, or staff that require you to verify your email account,” the email read.
The email also included instructions to delete the email without clicking on the links. If students hover over the link with their mouse pointers, that will display the link, and if it’s not the same as what is listed, it can be assumed it’s not legitimate.
Screenshots of the emails are included below.
Lofgren encouraged students to call the campus help desk to change passwords.
He said he received notices from Office 365 saying 12 emails were compromised, and he already changed the passwords, but other students who are experiencing issues should report to campus technology.
Lofgren said campus technology will rarely send an email asking students to confirm their account, and if such an email is received, it can be assumed it’s suspicious.
“We don’t have to verify,” Lofgren said. “We just look it up in our system.”
He also said that accounts are deleted if they haven’t been active in a year.
When affected students change their passwords, Lofgren suggested they make the new passwords complex with capital letters, numbers, and special characters.
Sierra Paul, theatre education sophomore, received a phishing email, screenshotted it, and posted it on the “OCU” Facebook group, where classmates told her it was suspicious.
“I only got one recently, but it’s been a recurring problem all year,” she said. “I didn’t click on the link, but really a university-level email should be more secure.”
She said she advises students to not click on anything that might seem suspicious. Paul said she’s been frustrated lately with the university technology.
“I just think OCU has terrible technology problems that have gone on far too long,” she said. “They keep saying that they’re working on it, but really nothing ever gets fixed, so I’d just appreciate it if they actually stuck to their word and actually fixed it for once.”
Paul said the technology issues get in the way of her productivity.
“It’s unacceptable how much technology problems impact students,” she said. “Students can’t complete their work without a headache, and it’s simply ridiculous.”
She said she doesn’t understand why there are technology issues at an “expensive private university like OCU.”
Campus technology will be conducting updates to the computer systems over break Dec. 22.
Suspicious emails can be reported to isitlegit@my.okcu.edu.
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