free
TUESDAY
nov. 14, 2017 high 41°, low 27°
t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k |
N • Divestment efforts
O • For deer life
A Syracuse University professor discussed the Divest Syracuse movement at Monday’s Student Association meeting in search of student support. Page 3
dailyorange.com
P • Game on
Environment columnist Allison Weis argues that culling is the best method to curb Syracuse’s overpopulation of deer, even if it’s not the most animal-friendly solution. Page 5
Syracuse’s fifth annual retro gaming convention will be held at The Oncenter this weekend. It will feature video game tournaments, raffles and cosplay costumes. Page 9
Go phish
For years, SU basketball’s Isis Young has been forced to deal with sharing a name with one of the world’s most violent terrorist militant groups. Page 16
on campus
SU to hold mumps health fair
Scam emails at Syracuse University are becoming more ‘sophisticated and malicious’
By Sam Ogozalek asst. news editor
Syracuse University students will get a chance to collect merchandise commemorating this semester’s mumps outbreak on Tuesday as part of a student-organized health fair on the Quad. T-shirts with “Bump the Mumps” lettering will be handed out, along with other promotional items such as plastic cups and stickers, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The T-shirts’ typeface is stylized like that of Netflix’s popular science fiction series, “Stranger Things.” Students on the Quad will be asked to sign a pledge to practice good hygiene and help control the spread of mumps, a contagious disease, according to a Syracuse University News release. The event is being organized by a group of public relations and marketing majors from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, SU’s Student Association and Health Services interns from the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.
Story by Rachel Sandler
TIMELINE OF THE MUMPS AT SU
asst. digital editor
Illustration by Annie Schwartz
SEPT. 21
contributing illustrator
T
S • Reclaim a name
he email landed in the inboxes of Syracuse University students on the afternoon of Sept. 5. The message, which bore the subject line “NetID Update,” contained a logo from SU’s Information Technology Services website. The email demanded recipients click on a URL to renew their SU NetID and password. Someone not paying enough attention might have glossed over the sender’s email, “cp.ermitadelsanto. madrid@educa.madrid.org.” They might have ignored the fact that the message was a single sentence. They even might have clicked on a link, leading them to a page that asked for their NetID and password. That’s the opening hackers are looking for. This type of email, in which hackers concoct messages to dupe users into giving away personal information, is called a phishing email. With someone’s SU login credentials, a hacker could access a trove of sensitive data stored on SU servers — including addresses, phone numbers and financial aid information — and sell it on the dark web, the part of the internet not indexed by search engines. Scammers have been sending phishing emails to SU accounts for the last decade. But recently, phish-
ing messages targeting the university appear to be more “sophisticated and malicious,” as hackers get better, and the shadowy data broker industry on the dark web flourishes, said Chris Finkle, ITS communications manager. “For a while we could tell them from a mile away, but now we’re getting some that are very genuine looking. And they take you to a webpage that’s also very genuine looking,” he said. Since ITS only becomes aware of phishing emails when students, faculty and staff report them, ITS officials said it’s difficult to measure if people are actually receiving more phishing emails or if ITS is just getting better at detecting and responding to them. Still, since the beginning of the semester, ITS has sent seven phishing alert notifications, an increase from five during the same period last year, Finkle said. “Phishing is one of our biggest threats,” said Chris Croad, SU’s information security officer. “It doesn’t matter how much we protect our computers. If you give away your credentials, you’re compromised.” ITS officials estimate that university servers receive 1.2 million emails per day, but the vast majority of see phishing page 6
It doesn’t matter how much we protect our computers. If you give away your credentials, you’re compromised. Chris Croad su’s information security officer
Email notifies SU community of mumps outbreak after a second student contracts the disease. Another mumps case was reported in late August.
OCT. 2 Students without vaccination records are excluded from campus starting at 8 a.m.
OCT. 27 Mumps cases jump to 29 confirmed and 61 probable.
NOV. 13 Health services reports 41 confirmed and 78 probable mumps cases. The university has hosted multiple mumps vaccination clinics since October. The outbreak started in August. Students with confirmed or probable cases of the mumps are isolated from campus for up to five days. Some of them have been housed in the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center. sfogozal@syr.edu | @Sam13783