Beware of Phishing Scams

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a technique in which users are directed by an official-looking email to provide personal information under false pretenses. The message may appear to come from a bank, police agency, or other legitimate entity. The information requested may be a credit card number, social security number, ATM PIN number, password or other personal information. The recipient is asked to provide this information via email or by visiting an official-looking web site, and warned that failure to do so may result in a discontinuation of service. Legitimate businesses and government entities are aware of phishing scams and would not ask you to send sensitive information in response to unsolicited email. You should treat these messages like spam and never reply to them. Information Technology Services advises people to never send any passwords via an e-mail message for any reason.

Compromised Computer Accounts

There have been several e-mail phishing scams from accounts claiming to be Binghamton University e-mail addresses and asking recipients to send their passwords via a reply e-mail. Some in our campus community have taken the bait and provided sensitive, personal material to unknown parties. Identity theft is a growing national issue. Phishing is one method for unscrupulous persons to gain access to personal or computer account information and launch either spam attacks or hacking attacks on others in the internet community. The account owner is usually not aware of this improper use.

See examples of phishing scams which target Binghamton University accounts.

Last updated on Apr 11, 2011.

Binghamton University Mobile App - bMobi

bMobiBinghamton University is now offering iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Blackberry users a free app (bMobi) for easy access to campus news and events. To install bMobi you will first need to connect your mobile device to Binghamton University's wireless network. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Change the settings on the mobile device to Wi-Fi ON.
  2. Start up a browser (e.g. Safari).
  3. You will have to go through the Client Validation process. Provide your BU Pods ID and password to validate your device.
    Note: your Pods password is not the same as your BMail password. Help with activating and managing your computer account passwords is available on the password instruction page.
  4. Your mobile device should now be registered to the BU campus network.

To install bMobi and for more information about this app go to http://www2.binghamton.edu/mobi/.

Last updated on Nov 11, 2010.

Green Computing

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It is the goal of Information Technology Services to join other energy saving projects at Binghamton University to save money and protect the environment.

We will provide information to the campus about reducing power consumption, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promote energy efficiencient products, and provide recommendations for PC settings.

Additionally, the ITS Department will embark on its own "Green IT" initiatives to meet those goals.

For more information on Green Computing see the ITS Go Green page.

Last updated on Nov 11, 2010.

Virtual Desktop

Virtual Desktop at Binghamton University is accessed via the link bingview.binghamton.edu. It provides on-campus/off-campus access to statistical packages such as SPSS, STATA, SAS, as well as Atlas.Ti, NVivo, Pro Engineer, Matlab, and Mathematica.

When connecting to the Virtual Desktops on the Windows platform use Internet Explorer Version 6-Version 8 (currently IE 9 is not supported by the VMWare).  In the event you are unable to connect, try loading the latest version of Java from java.com. On the Macintosh platform use Safari.

For more information on Virtual Desktop, consult the Virtual Desktop FAQ. For step by step instructions to Virtual Desktop, consult the Introduction to Virtual Desktop at Binghamton University.

To access Virtual Desktop from your personal laptop or from off-campus, you will first need to install the VMware Client.

VMware Client Installation

Last updated on Sep 1, 2011.