The IT Security Office has received reports of phishing e-mail messages that instruct the recipient to call a phone number to "verify account information" for "security purposes."

THIS IS A SCAM. DO NOT CALL THE PHONE NUMBER LISTED IN THE E-MAIL.

A screenshot of the reported messages is posted below.

Click to enlarge

Facebook staffers know when you've been naughty, they know when you've been nice, and they know who you're checking out:

From the article:

It's good to know what the Internet is telling people about you, because it might be telling them things that aren't true:

Police: Woman Used Internet To Break Up Marriage

From the article:

A 34-year-old Uncasville woman has been charged with using the Internet to try to get revenge on an old boyfriend by breaking up his marriage.

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Worried about identity theft? Please join us for a Lunch & Learn session on Tuesday, October 30, 2007. We'll meet in the International Room at noon. IT Security Office staff will do a brief presentation on ID theft, then we'll open up the floor for questions and discussion. Stay until the end for a prize drawing!

First, the good news:

Unlike after the Virgina Tech massacre, the SANS Internet Storm Center says that it is not seeing charity scams related to the California wildfires. Yet.

The bad news:

See also: Yet. It's early, and it's very doubtful that nobody will attempt to take advantage of others' desire to help the victims of the wildfires.

It's rare that we post "update your software" alerts on the Be SeKUre blog, but this is a big 'un.

There is a vulnerability in the way Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Acrobat reader handle "mailto:" links. A mailto link is a clickable link in a web page or PDF file (among other places) that, when clicked, causes your e-mail program to pop up with an e-mail message where the To: field is already filled in. Anyway, this vulnerability, when exploited, will allow an attacker to take complete control of your computer. The attacker could:

From the Red Tape Chronicles at MSNBC...

On October 17th, I presented a case for using your computer with an unprivileged or non-admin level user account. Today’s entry is a step-by-step guide to configuring your system accordingly.

If you are using Windows XP you can check your account type by going to the Start menu and opening the Control Panel. Your Control Panel window will look something like this:

Click images to enlarge

In the Facebook/ID theft sessions we've done in residence halls this month, one of the topics we've covered is "72 Reasons it's a TERRIBLE IDEA to Share Your KU Online ID with ANYBODY." Your KU Online ID is the key to your particular kingdom--protect it accordingly.

We've also been promoting the capability of students to create a "Guardian Account" (now called "Authorized User") for their parent/guardian to log in and pay their tuition and fees...but the joke is on us, because the link we passed out was broken. Whoops.