Frequently Asked Questions

I clicked on a phishing link!  What do I do?

If you just clicked on a link, you should be okay.  However, you should be mindful moving forward of your computer’s behavior.  Some phishing links can install malware – a malicious piece of computer code – which could capture future data or credentials from your computer.  If you are at all concerned about your computer’s functionality, please contact the CIS Service Desk at servicedesk@vassar.edu or x7224 for a complete computer checkup, including a virus scan.

I clicked on a link and filled in a form!  What do I do?

Change your Vassar College password immediately.  Visit http://iam.vassar.edu to change all your passwords.  If you cannot login to IAM or other Vassar College services such as Google Apps for Education, contact the CIS Service Desk immediately at x7224.

I changed my Vassar password, what else should I do?

If you believe your account has been compromised, you should make sure your Google Apps for Education account has not been tampered with.  Check for the following:

  • Look at your mail filters, and review all the entries.  Often cyber criminals put in filters that will move emails with certain subject lines into folders where you can’t see them.  Remove all filters that you believe to be suspect.
  • Check your sent mail folder, to see if the cyber criminal sent any email while they had control of the account.  If you see messages you did not send, follow up with those recipients to ensure they are aware that they did not come from you.
  • Review your Google Drive folders and make sure nothing has been deleted by an unauthorized user.  Check the trash for recently deleted files.
  • Similarly, review your Google Drive documents and check the sharing settings on any important documents.  Make sure they are not publicly shared and exposed to unauthorized users.

What about my personal accounts such as banking and email?

  • If you use the same username and password for personal accounts as you do for Vassar services, change those passwords immediately.  It is not hard for a malicious individual to determine what other services you use and gain access to them.
  • Change your personal accounts, especially those for banking sites, to a personal email address and use a different password than the one used at Vassar.
  • Are you having a hard time managing many different passwords?  Try LastPass!  https://servicedesk.vassar.edu/catalog_items/751530-password-management/service_requests/new.portal