Looking for high-paying jobs is a common part of the college lifestyle, and any given opportunity opens up doors for students to improve their economic status. However, those opportunities can be fraudulent and harm students, which is what some Ithaca College students experienced through email phishing in Fall 2022. 

After these incidents, the Office of Information Technology (IT) sent out an email and posted an Intercom announcement at the end of the fall semester, notifying students about the scams. However, IT posted an Intercom announcement Aug. 16, 2022, warning students about fake job offers before the attacks started during the semester.  

Students have all the right to be dissatisfied with how the college has handled protecting their security. In students’ defense, the college could have put slightly more effort into protecting students’ security. To protect students in the future, IT could update phishing security for the college’s email similar to the University of South Carolina’s email security. 

The Office of Information Security and Access Management staff said the college has the latest Microsoft security technology. However, when one security protocol is not working, there must be an improvement. Phishing attacks have previously happened at the college and repetition of a similar problem is a sign of poor security technology. 

An Intercom announcement was made Jul. 21, 2022, about security awareness training that supposedly would require faculty and staff to complete training four times a year. Putting this into practice could actually help students’ and staff’s safety by reminding them of the viable attacks. It also would inform new and transfer students about phishing and how to stay safe. 

Preventing email scams completely is an impossible task. However, not trying hard enough to keep the community secure should not be accepted. The phishing issue must be taken into account seriously, and the more attention it gets the better the chances are of no student getting scammed in the future.