Technology News
Tips for Keeping Your Email Account Safe
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Never send your password via email.
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Never respond to a message that looks suspicious or that you are not positive comes from Webster University, even if it’s just to ask if it is legitimate. If you want to know if a message is legitimate, do not respond to the message, forward it to: support@webster.edu
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Read the email carefully. Many phishing attempts are poorly written, containing poor grammar and spelling mistakes.
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Check this website for known phishing scams. If your email looks similar, DO NOT respond.
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Do not click on a link or open an attachment in an email from an unknown source! Your account can be hijacked or you can get a virus on your computer by clicking on a link or opening an attachment in an email. If you are even slightly suspicious of the email, DO NOT click on any links or open any attachments.
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Be skeptical. Don’t be fooled by personalized messages, web pages or images in an email. They are all easily faked.
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Know what messages Webster Information Technology has sent out. Bookmark this page; Information Technology posts all current communications to the Webster community here. If you are unsure of a message you receive, check this page. If it is not listed, it is probably not legitimate. Forward suspicious emails to: support@webster.edu
Outages and Known Issues
None reported
Recent Communications
Hallmark Emails
11/05/09
Do NOT open the attachment in the Hallmark emails that are going around today. Opening the attachment in these emails takes you to a site that infects your computer with a virus.
You should never click on links or open attachments in emails from unknown sources.
If you receive what you believe is a real e-card, go to the providers web page (Hallmark, Yahoo, e-Cards, etc) by typing the address of their main website into your browser (i.e. Hallmark.com) and locating the option to view a card someone has sent to you. Legitimate e-cards will have a retrieval code which you can enter on the sender's website instead of clicking on a link or opening an attachment.
If you did receive the fake Hallmark email and opened the attachment please contact the Help Desk at 866-435-7270.
Thank you,
Webster University Information Technology
Yahoo Blacklisting
4/10/09
Webster University is currently experiencing issues with our email domains being blacklisted by Yahoo.com email. The result of this blacklisting is that when anyone from Webster tries to email anyone at a yahoo.com email address the email bounces back as undeliverable.
In addition, anyone who has their Webster email forwarded to a yahoo.com email address will not receive their Webster email.
We are working with Yahoo to attempt to resolve this situation, but, we have very little control over what Yahoo does, and there is no easy, simple or certain solution.
Some of our own mailing and user behavior practices have contributed to the blacklisting issue.
Some of those behaviors include:
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Emailing numerous messages to distribution lists with large numbers of recipients on a daily basis. University owned lists and user maintained lists alike take part in this practice.
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Users marking messages from Webster as spam in their Yahoo accounts. Messages should only be marked as spam if they are legitimate spam messages, list messages or legitimate messages forwarded to Yahoo from Webster should not be marked as spam.
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Actual spam that is receive by Webster users who have their email forwarded to Yahoo accounts is counted by Yahoo as spam received from Webster as the last “hop” in the internet addressing before it reaches the Yahoo account is a Webster server.
Webster University is not the only institution struggling with this particular problem, a recent change in Yahoo’s blacklisting policies have caused many institutions to have this or similar problems.
Another thing that is important to understand is that the blacklisting is done on a per server basis on both sides. Yahoo has many servers which maintain their own blacklists and Webster has many email servers from which mail can be routed. The particular combination of servers you interact with may affect your ability to send mail to a yahoo user differently on each try. For example, a user on the Webster poe server may be able to email yahoo users successfully today while a user on blake server cannot and that is subject to change on a continuous basis.
Please make sure that you pass this information along to students that you have contact with.
We will update you on the status of this issue as soon as any progress has been made.
Thank you,
Webster University Information Technology
470 East Lockwood Avenue