Pulaski Technical College: two year community college in central Arkansas

Current News

E-mail system having technical difficulties
4/15/2009

The e-mail system had technical difficulties over the weekend and interruptions in e-mail service have continued intermittently on Wednesday. The computing services staff addresses technical problems very proactively to minimize the inconvenience caused by service disruptions. When e-mail is down, faculty and staff can access status updates on the college Web site under the "Faculty and Staff" Web page at the following link: Emergency Communications and Network Outages.

Phishing at PTC

Last week many PTC employees received a bogus "phishing" e-mail that claimed to have been sent by Pulaski Tech Computing Services. The e-mail was not legitimate; it was a scam. Computing Services will not ask for your personal information by way of email. This policy is to help you protect your personal information and keep our network as secure as possible.

Many scams have been created to steal your important data from you. Data such as log in IDs, passwords, social security numbers, and birth dates can be used to gain access to your computer and steal your identity. The latest email phishing attempt is an example of what is called spear phishing. Below are some tips to help avoid falling for this type of scam:

Never reveal personal or financial information in a response to an e-mail request, no matter who appears to have sent it.
If you receive an e-mail message that appears suspicious, call the person or organization listed in the "from" line before you respond or open any attached files.
Never click links in an e-mail message that requests personal or financial information. Enter the Web address into your browser window instead.
Don't post any information on a blog or social networking site that could be used by identity thieves to target you, your family, friends or your workplace.
Report any e-mail that you suspect might be a spear phishing campaign within your company.

These security tips were provided by Microsoft. You can read further about phishing scams and ways to avoid them by going to their Web site located here.