This week’s e-newsletter has a couple of non-threats to tell you about, plus one recurring phishing attempt. There are also a few updates you need to be certain you have.

Current Non-Threats

• McLean & Company
  • The subject is Please Respond: University of Tennessee Employee Survey.
  • The follow-up email’s subject is Reminder – Please Respond: University of Tennessee Employee Survey.
  • The sender is survey@mcleanco.com.
  • The emails and survey are legitimate.
  • This is a survey sent on behalf of UT System.
  • UT President, Randy Boyd, has asked that everyone participate before the survey is closed on Wednesday, 09/28/2022.

• Annual Enrollment
  • The subject is Save the date: Annual Enrollment is coming!
  • The sender is University of Tennessee Benefits Team+ALEX <reply@meetalex.com>.
  • The Executive Director of Payroll has confirmed that this is legitimate and was a collaboration with him and the UTSA Chief Human Resources Officer.
  • This is a good time to remind you that if you missed yesterday’s UTIA information session on open enrollment, you will be able to view the recording on the UTIA Human Resources website.

Current Threats

• Office365 (phishing)
  • The subject is OFFICE 365.
  • The sender appears to be a student with the @vols.utk.edu address.
  • The email tells you that your Office365 edu email accounts and passwords will expire in 24 hours.
  • The email directs you to a link for updating your password.
  • Please do NOT click the link.
  • If your password truly was about to expire, you would get a message from OIT, not an individual student.
  • Notice how many ways Office365 is written – Office365, office365, OFFICE 365.
  • Notice the punctuation and grammatical errors in the email’s content.

Browser, OS, and Software Updates

• Microsoft
  • Microsoft has released an out-of-band security update to address a vulnerability in Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager.
  • Updates are being automatically pushed to Institute-owned computers.
  • If you have recently clicked to have your computer restart later to finish these updates, please make sure your reboot right away to ensure all available updates have been applied.
  • Exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to obtain sensitive information.

• Firefox
  • Mozilla has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in Firefox.
  • These vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to take control of an affected system.
  • Since your browsers are being managed by UTIA ITS, you should be getting the updates automatically.
  • If you do not close your browser regularly, you may not have the latest updates.
  • In your Firefox browser, go to Settings (the three lines in the upper right-hand corner) and scroll down to Help.
  • Click on Help and click on About Firefox.
  • A window will open to show you if your browser is up to date and what version you should have.
  • If you don’t have version 105, please restart the browser to get the update.

Thanks for all you do every day to protect the Institute and its data. And remember if you need me, please email or call me at any time.

Have a great rest of the week!

Sandy