Good afternoon.

Today I want to tell you about a new round of retirement benefit phishing emails. There are also plenty of Microsoft and Adobe updates that have been released to address vulnerabilities in these products. If you are rebooting your computer often, you are likely getting the updates as you should. If you haven’t rebooted this week, take a minute and do so now! This will also help get those new security initiatives in place.

Current Threats

• Retirement Benefits (phishing email)
  • The sender may vary, but one known sender is Avery Parker <avery[@]disctrict-advice.com>.
  • The subject may be Information About State Retirement for The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
  • The email content tells you that it ‘s the time of year to schedule a meeting with a representative to discuss your retirement benefit questions.
  • There is a link for making an appointment, but please do not click!
  • There is also a link to unsubscribe, but don’t click this one, either.
  • Instead, please report the email using Reporting Phishing Attempts & Other Email Scams.
  • I would also recommend blocking the sender by right-clicking in the message preview, then go to Junk and click Block Sender.
  • Remember that the *only* company that is affiliated with RetireReadyTN is Empower Financial Services and their emails come from Empower <no-reply[@]sfmc.empowermyretirement.com>.
  • If you would like to learn more about retirement options, please visit Retirement Services’ Seminars and Personalized Consultation.
  • It’s always better if you seek the specific information you want when you want it instead of speaking with someone you don’t know who contacted you out of the blue!

Browser, OS, and Software Updates

• Microsoft
  • This week Microsoft has released several security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple products.
  • Exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to obtain sensitive information.
  • Updates are being automatically pushed to Institute-owned computers, but a reboot is often required to ensure the updates are completely and properly installed.
  • If you have recently clicked to have your computer restart later to finish these updates, please make sure you reboot right away to ensure all available updates have been applied.

• Adobe
  • This week Adobe has released several security updates to address vulnerabilities in multiple products.
  • Exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to obtain sensitive information.
  • Updates are being automatically pushed to Institute-owned computers, but a reboot is often required to ensure the updates are completely and properly installed.
  • If you have recently clicked to have your computer restart later to finish these updates, please make sure you reboot right away to ensure all available updates have been applied.

Thank you all for everything you do every day to protect the Institute and its data. It is so reassuring to know how security-minded you all are. And please remember you can contact me at any time if you have any questions or concerns. I am always here to help you!

Sandy

Important Note: Thank you so much for sharing these e-newsletters with family, friends, clients, students, and anyone else who may benefit from the information. I would like to stress that you should keep your students in mind, as non-employee students will not get this information without someone sharing. If anyone has an email group for students who are not employees of your department, please let me know what that address is, and I can include it. I do this as a blind copy so student names and addresses will not show up!