Columbia University Information Technology

Service Alerts

Changes to the University's status due to inclement weather tomorrow, Wednesday, February 10th, will be found at http://news.columbia.edu/home/1912, or off the main University web site, under Announcements, at www.columbia.edu/  

As the University works to support efforts in Haiti, outpourings of aid and requests for donations pour in.

One widely-publicized request for donations ask individuals to donate $10 to relief efforts by texting 'HAITI' to 10990, as well as other numbers.  This donation is then billed to the cell phone account.

While CUIT applauds all relief efforts from the Columbia community,  it is important to understand that this charge will appear on CUIT customers' cell phone accounts and must be paid for by their department.  

We have just learned that Verizon will soon block customers from using this service; however, AT&T will not.  If you have any questions, please contact us at askcuit@columbia.edu or 212-854-1919.

Members of the Columbia community are receiving emails that, in one form or another, are requesting personal information.  These emails are phishing attacks, attempts to gain access to your personal information by identity theft scam artists.  If you have received these - or any other email asking you to provide personal information - delete the email.

As these threats become more sophisticated, it's important to remember:

• Never email your password or any other personal information (e.g. credit card, social security, account number).  Banks, and other financial institutions will never ask for your account number, PINs or passwords in email.
• Columbia will never ask you for your password or personal information in email so never reply to an email asking for it.
• Be cautious of any request for personal information in any form or medium, and confirm requests through published contact methods on official websites.  It's always best to type in the address yourself than click a link provided in an email.
• When shopping online, always be sure you are entering your credit card information on a secured web page.  You can determine if the page is secure by looking for the 's' in the URL (e.g., https:// webpagename. com) You will also see a graphic of a lock in your browser's frame window.

8/31/09 UPDATE: Phishing emails continue to be aimed at Columbia email addresses.  The language and content varies from group to group.  We remind everyone to please be extra-aware and skeptical of strange emails requesting personal information or asking you to click on URLs.