As we prepare for the winter break, we commonly see a surge in malicious activity toward user accounts. Users receive emails warning about unpaid invoices, expired passwords, or full inboxes. These messages are made to convince people that they are in danger of losing money or access if they don't respond, or click a link within an email. Very often these messages will appear to come from someone you know, from a company you may have done business with, or in some cases, from what looks like your own account.

Other common phishing messages recently have included invoices from companies like PayPal or GeekSquad saying they will be charging your credit card if you don't click a link. These messages are fake.

We have some FAQs available on how to identify phishing/spam messages you can look at below.

UMBC Phishing and Spam FAQs

As well as some best practices for keeping your account secure:

Cybersecurity Awareness - Security - UMBC

If you receive any messages like this, please forward them to security@umbc.edu along with the email headers. For instructions on forwarding email headers, please visit:

How do I forward full email headers? - Find Help (FAQs) - UMBC.

The DoIT Technology Support Center is looking to hire additional student consultants to work during the springsemester and beyond. Please see our job description below and visit our job posting on Handshake to apply. (Search for DoIT Technology Support Center Student Consultant.)

TSC Student Consultant Job Description

Technology Support Center (TSC) student consultants are the first points of technical contact for the UMBC community and those who do well often go on to work in other areas of the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). Minimally, consultants are expected to provide initial triage and support for a wide range of information technologies including accounts, hardware, instructional technologies, networking, software, telecommunications, and basic web development.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provide technical assistance to users by phone, online and in person;
• Answer TSC phones in a professional and courteous manner;
• Create, update and resolve tickets in the Request Tracker (RT) ticketing system;
• Create, update, suggest and recommend relevant FAQ articles to users (www.umbc.edu/faq);
• Provide direct assistance to users on technical issues they cannot easily resolve on their own;
• Respond to all work-related communications in a timely manner;
• Escalate urgent problems to the Full-Time staff, as appropriate.

Required Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate by phone or in person.
• Demonstrated writing ability.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve successful outcomes in handling difficult situations and customers.
• Demonstrated analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability & willingness to learn coupled with a clear understanding of one’s technical abilities, so as to triage and escalate an issue that leads to an effective solution for the user.

The DoIT Technology Support Center is looking to hire additional student consultants to work during the fall semester and beyond. Please see our job description below and visit our job posting on Handshake to apply. (Search for DoIT Technology Support Center Student Consultant.) The application will be open until September 14, 2022.

We're specifically looking for students available to work during the following hours:

• Monday 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
• Tuesday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Wednesday 6 p.m. -8 p.m.
• Thursday 2p.m. - 4 p.m.

TSC Student Consultant Job Description

Technology Support Center (TSC) student consultants are the first points of technical contact for the UMBC community and those who do well often go on to work in other areas of the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). Minimally, consultants are expected to provide initial triage and support for a wide range of information technologies including accounts, hardware, instructional technologies, networking, software, telecommunications, and basic web development.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provide technical assistance to users by phone, online and in person;
• Answer TSC phones in a professional and courteous manner;
• Create, update and resolve tickets in the Request Tracker (RT) ticketing system;
• Create, update, suggest and recommend relevant FAQ articles to users (www.umbc.edu/faq);
• Provide direct assistance to users on technical issues they cannot easily resolve on their own;
• Respond to all work-related communications in a timely manner;
• Escalate urgent problems to the Full-Time staff, as appropriate.

Required Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate by phone or in person.
• Demonstrated writing ability.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve successful outcomes in handling difficult situations and customers.
• Demonstrated analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Ability & willingness to learn coupled with a clear understanding of one’s technical abilities, so as to triage and escalate an issue that leads to an effective solution for the user.