91¿´Æ¬

IT Leaders Address Cybersecurity Attack

Quick Summary

  • Office of the President is investigating to determine the scope of the attack
  • 91¿´Æ¬OP will reach out directly to any 91¿´Æ¬ Davis affiliates affected by this incident
  • Report suspicious email without clicking on any links or replying to the sender

A letter sent by email today (March 31), from Viji Murali, vice provost, Information and Educational Technology, and chief information officer; and Cheryl Washington, chief information security officer.


To Our Campus Community:

The 91¿´Æ¬ Davis Information Security Office is working with 91¿´Æ¬OP in response to a security incident involving 91¿´Æ¬ employee information.

Beginning Monday, March 29, many 91¿´Æ¬ Davis email accounts started receiving messages stating that their personal data had been stolen and would be released. We learned from our colleagues that similar messages were being received in email accounts for multiple campuses throughout the 91¿´Æ¬ system.

RELATED CONTENT

The Information Security Office investigated and found that these emails contained a link to a public website where a sample of personal data from 91¿´Æ¬ employees was posted. Working with the IET uConnect email team, we took steps to block these messages from being received by 91¿´Æ¬ Davis email accounts.

We have subsequently learned that some personal 91¿´Æ¬ employee data was obtained through a cyberattack on a 91¿´Æ¬OP system, and this was the source for the information released. The security team at 91¿´Æ¬OP, working with law enforcement, is investigating the matter and has released a statement that you can read on the Dateline news site.

91¿´Æ¬OP is working to determine the scope, and will reach out directly to any members of the 91¿´Æ¬ Davis community affected by this incident. In the meantime, if you receive any suspicious email, please report it to cybersecurity@ucdavis.edu without clicking on any links or replying to the sender.

This is also a good time to review cybersecurity tips. The 91¿´Æ¬ Cyber Security Awareness Fundamentals course includes some great content on these types of issues; please log onto the to view the course if you have not already done so.

Always be suspicious of any email asking for personal or user account information. 91¿´Æ¬ Davis will never ask you for such information via email. If you have questions or concerns, please contact cybersecurity@ucdavis.edu.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Viji Murali
Vice Provost, Information and Educational Technology
and Chief Information Officer

Cheryl Washington
Chief Information Security Officer

Media Resources

Dateline Staff: Dave Jones, editor, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu; Cody Kitaura, News and Media Relations specialist, 530-752-1932, kitaura@ucdavis.edu.

Primary Category

Tags