UVU warns students of active phishing campaign targeting university

OREM, Utah (KUTV) — Utah Valley University said they have not experienced any data breach, but warns students that there is an active phishing campaign currently targeting the university.

This comes after marketing professor Dustin Harding told 2News that a student of his fell victim to the scam and lost nearly $3,000 in the process.

"It wasn’t just this one student," Harding said. "I’ve received emails from students from different schools within the university that have received this scam invitation. It makes me sick."

MORE | UVU professor warns students of email phishing scam that cost student nearly $3k

Christina Baum, UVU's Chief Information Officer, said there is no evidence of a data breach despite multiple students receiving messages that appeared to come from their professors.

"There wasn't a compromise of our systems," Baum said. "They impersonated our faculty and were able to get a student to participate."

The scam mirrors attacks seen on college campuses: unsolicited job offers, a promise of quick pay, and instructions that lead students to personal or banking information or send money upfront.

Baum said the university uses various tools, including AI-driven software, that can automatically remove known phishing emails from students' inboxes once they've identified them.

"Some tools can detect anomalies and pull those emails practively off the server," she said. "That helps ensure students who haven't opened it don't ever see it."

Faculty and staff are required to complete annual cybersecurity training. Students are encouraged, but not required, to attend cybersecurity training.

2News asked if the university would consider making these trainings mandatory.

"We could definitely look at that and see," Baum said. "I think we have orientation and a few different opportunities to train students. I don't know if those are mandatory currently, but we certainly could."

UVU advises students to watch out for red flags, including urgent language, unsolicited offers, multiple spelling or grammar errors, and emails that are slightly off from official email addresses.

Students who receive suspicious emails are urged to forward them to spam@uvu.edu and the university's IT desk at 801-863-8888.

The university has also posted warnings on Canvas, its learning management system, and sent campuswide emails.