May 13, 2024
**The following is from an email sent to OU faculty and staff May 6, 2024**
As many of you know, the quantity and sophistication of simulated phishing emails has noticeably increased over the past three months. Much of this can be attributed to new capabilities in our security awareness training platform, KnowBe4. OU IT enabled these functions in an effort to better prepare us all to deal with real cybercrime, of which the complexity and consequence is growing at an alarming rate.
We’ve heard from many of you about how frustrating these emails can be. OU IT will be making some immediate changes to the simulated phishing program that we hope will come as welcome news.
The University of Oklahoma is truly grateful for your efforts to keep our university safe and aware.
We will be temporarily suspending the use of some KnowBe4 capabilities while we refine our configuration. You will continue to receive standard simulated phishing emails, but the following changes to functionality and frequency have been made:
Correctly identifying and reporting phishing emails helps OU refine our defenses. Thank you for your continued effort in using the Phish Alert Button in Outlook to report phishing attempts, both real and simulated.
We've introduced optional KnowBe4 training to keep you ahead of the curve. Stay sharp against evolving threats like smishing (SMS phishing) and vishing (voice phishing). Remember, the Phish Alert Button in Outlook is your first line of defense. If an email seems off, report it. It's quick, it helps everyone, and it keeps us secure.
Visit https://ou.edu/ouit/cybersecurity to learn more about protecting your device, your identity, and university data.
On June 14th OU HSC will do the final transition to Canvas from Brightspace by D2L by ending access.
OU IT staff presented at the Annual CoIT 2024 Higher Education IT Summit this past week.
Update about the recent change in the quantity and sophistication of simulated phishing emails.