CQUniversity blocked 274 million SPAM emails during the past year!

As online criminals are continually adapting to try and defeat spam filters, students and staff are reminded to never disclose any of their financial information or University login details via email.

By using world-class email security software, called Sophos PureMessage, CQUniversity filters all student and staff emails for malicious content and attachments (including spam, viruses, spyware, phishing, trojans and worms).

During the past 12 months, CQUniversity received over 291 million emails. Of those, 94.35% (274 million emails) were identified to be spam, a further .12% (339 thousand emails) contained malicious attachments.

Only 5.53% (or a little over 16 million emails) were considered to be genuine communications and were delivered directly to students and staff inboxes.

Unfortunately, online criminals are often driven by the potential for financial gain and try tricking people into divulging their online banking credentials. In some cases, they also try to obtain student and staff email account details to take control of computers and create additional spamming platforms to further their malicious activities. 

As there are times when some malicious messages will slip through CQUniversity’s email security software, all students and staff need to be aware that:

• CQUniversity will never send you an email asking you to disclose (either by return email or via an included link to a web site) your email account username and password. You can be sure that any such communications you receive are malicious.
• No Australian financial organisation will ever send you an email asking you to disclose (or verify) online banking usernames, passwords or any other bank account information. Again, any such communication you receive will be malicious.
• If you receive a communication that appears to be genuine (perhaps because it contains some personal details) always contact the organisation concerned to verify the authenticity of the request before disclosing any personal details.

To view further advice, follow this link provided the Australian Bankers' Association about Protecting Your Information Online.  

Students and staff can contact the ITD Service Centre if ever they are unsure about an email they receive or would like assistance using their email account. 

The communication that was released to staff about this issue on Tuesday 1 June 2010 is also accessible online.