Stay alert - increased risk of phishing and social engineering attacks
The Microsoft service outage is affecting organisations and individuals globally. During events like this, cyber criminals often take advantage of confusion and service disruption to launch phishing and social engineering attacks.
As traditional communication tools are hampered, attackers may attempt to use phone calls and/or SMS messages impersonating IT services at the University, or other organisations such as social media or financial services, in order to trick you into accessing malicious links or giving away passwords and other valuable personal information.
Additionally, as email services begin to come back online, attackers may send phishing emails claiming you must "verify your account" as a result of the disruption.
Never your password or MFA codes with anyone.
Only trust communications from official University IT channels or Microsoft.
Be suspicious of unexpected calls or text messages claiming your account is locked, compromised, or requires immediate action.
If you are unsure an email, phone call or message, verify it directly with the claimed sender without using any details in the message itself.
See more information on phishing emails and how to report them on the UoA website:
Information Security | StaffNet | The University of Aberdeen
To report any other suspicious activity or communications, please raise a ticket with the Service Desk here:
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