August 21, 2012—New School faculty, staff, and students are advised to ignore email messages they may have received recently inviting them to accept a "free membership" to College Collaborative Networks. The emails advertise that "The College Collaborative Networks at http://www.ccnets.org is now open for sign up (choose 'NewSchool')," however, very little information is available about the service or the organization behind it. While there is no reason at present to think that the site has any malicious intent, it is not an official New School social media site, and should not be used for any official university work. We suggest avoiding it for personal use as well.
The New School offers several ways to obtain official communications and network with colleagues, including MyNewSchool, New School News, New School blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. For more information about connecting with The New School, visit www.newschool.edu/connect.
The Information Security Office offers these reminders for email users:
- Always be suspicious of e-mails asking for sensitive information. Email is not a secure form of communication. Organizations you do business with (including The New School) already know your account information, and will never request it from you via email.
- Never respond to an email request for personal information. If you think the message might be legitimate, look up the organization's phone number (don't trust the phone number in the email), call them on the phone, and provide the information that way.
- Never click on the links in a suspicious email. If you're unsure about a link to a site you receive in an email, hover your mouse over it. If the link text in the email doesn't match the link address, do not click on the link.
For assistance and information on computer security issues, the first point of contact is the IT Help Desk: 212.229.5300 x2828 or helpdesk@newschool.edu. Additional information can be found at www.newschool.edu/information-technology/security/.
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