Reporting Suspected Security Issues

Overview

Reporting suspected incidents promptly. This helps the University quickly evaluate the situation to contain the problem, ensure that other computers have not been affected, and determine if sensitive information may be at risk.

Detail

Lost or Stolen Equipment

• Contact University Police at 412-624-2121

Security Incidents

Reporting suspected incidents promptly. This helps the University quickly evaluate the situation to contain the problem, ensure that other computers have not been affected, and determine if sensitive information may be at risk.

Contact the Technology Help Desk at 412-624-HELP (4357) immediately to report:

• Virus, spyware, or other malicious programs found on your computer.
• Any attempts to break into your computer over the network.
• Any unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information stored on a computer.
• You have opened an attachment or clicked a link that was malicious.

Please provide the following information:

1. What you have observed.
2. Whether the situation may involve more than one computer.
3. The date and time the incident occurred.
4. The name, serial number, and IP network address of the computer (if known).
5. The location of the computer.
6. Whether or not any potentially sensitive information is stored on the computer.

Alternately, you can also submit a ticket to the Technology Help Desk if you'd like to report a Security concern that isn't pressing. 

Report a Suspected Phishing Email

Although your first instinct may be to ignore or delete suspicious emails, we recommend that you report them to our security team. We will examine the email and, if necessary, advise you of any further steps you may need to take. Please do not report spam (junk email) as a phishing scam. To report a phishing scam, forward the phishing email as an attachment to phish@pitt.edu. For more information about phishing emails, check out this article!

Attaching an email to a message as an attachment:

• Microsoft Outlook (Desktop client)
  1. Select the suspicious email in Outlook.
  2. Press Control-Alt-F to open a draft email message with the suspicious email as an attachment.
  3. Add phish@pitt.edu in the To: field and send the email.


• Microsoft Outlook Online (Office 365)
  1. Select New and click the icon in the upper right-hand corner of the message to compose it in its own window.
  2. Drag the suspicious email into the body of the new message to make it an attachment.
  3. Add phish@pitt.edu in the To: field and send the email.


• Reporting a phishing scam in Apple Mail
  1. Select the suspicious email in Mail.
  2. Select Message, then Forward as Attachment from the menu bar (or right-click and select Forward as Attachment)
  3. Add phish@pitt.edu in the To: field and send the email.