Your privacy means a lot: not just to you, but to the people you care about. If your private accounts and information are breached, other people could be breached too. That’s why it’s important to maintain your privacy online by making good choices with your privacy settings.
September 5, 2019
August 27, 2019
Instead of finding One-Eyed Willy's treasure at the end of an IRS-spoofed email, victims are tricked into clicking malicious links and giving up their treasure.
The IRS recently issued warnings about new email scams where attachers send unsolicited emails to taxpayers from fake IRS email addresses. The email subject line may vary, but recent examples use the phrase "Automatic Income Tax Reminder" or "Electronic Tax Return Reminder."
August 5, 2019
File-sharing can heighten risks to you and the University. As an Internet Service Provider (under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act), UC Berkeley does not monitor its networks for the purpose of discovering illegal activity. However, we act to make sure that Copyright, especially as it applies to digital assets, is respected within the Campus community.
July 21, 2019
Robocalls are on the rise. Be wary of any pre-recorded messages you might receive.
July 17, 2019
In the past few months, the campus has seen an increase in these types of phishing attacks. The most common form is a short message that starts with something like, "quick help needed," "are you in the office?", or "available?" from a person of authority. Often the messages appear to come from vice chancellors, deans, and department chairs.
July 9, 2019
July 8, 2019
June 24, 2019
Beginning August 13, Offsite Hostname requests will move to NetReg.
June 18, 2019
June 3, 2019
Karl Grose, one of the founding fathers of CalNet, is retiring.
May 22, 2019
You may have noticed some changes here at security.berkeley.edu. The Information Security and Policy office has taken a new name and undergone a website redesign. We are now The Information Security Office or ISO. Don't worry, all of our great content is still here. The new layout may take some getting used to, but our search function is better than ever and can help you find what you are looking for.
May 21, 2019
May 14, 2019
Summary
A zero-day elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in the way Microsoft Windows Error Reporting (WER) handles files. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode.
While details about the use of the exploit are not available, it has reportedly been used in limited attacks against specific targets. Successful exploitation has been observed in the wild. [2][3]
Summary
*** Vulnerable RDP servers should be patched IMMEDIATELY even where there is a potential business impact (unscheduled maintenance). Notify security@berkeley.edu if you anticipate any delays in patching. ***
April 10, 2019
Overview
Every Windows product has a lifecycle and that lifecycle ends when it no longer receives security updates or fixes, software updates, and/or technical support. On Jan. 14, 2020 Microsoft will discontinue support for the Windows 7 Operating System. Without security, patches these systems will be easy targets for hackers, malware, and viruses.
March 14, 2019
A couple of recent phishing scams, referred to as a “Business Email Compromise (BEC),” have been targeting universities to steal funds through the purchasing process.
The first phishing scam targets suppliers that do business with campus by using Berkeley emails as the hook. These attacks involve purchase orders and requests for quotes that appear to come from the University, but are in fact fraudulent.
Be Alert:
March 8, 2019
Starting March 11th services that use Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) will require CalNet 2-Step Authentication.
Examples of software include CalShare and Microsoft 365.
February 21, 2019
Summary
A highly critical bug has been discovered in Drupal that can be used for remote code execution [1]. Drupal is a Content Management System (CMS) commonly used to host websites. In the past this sort of exploit has been used to deliver remote access tools, ransomware, and cryptominers to web servers [2]. Based on similar exploits against various CMS software in the past, we can expect that attackers will begin exploiting this software quickly.
February 20, 2019
Reserve your seat at DataEDGE 2019, the UC Berkeley School of Information's annual data science conference scheduled for April 23, 2019.