TECHNICIAN
wednesday april
9
2014
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Phishing attacks increase at NCSU Katherine Kehoe Assistant News Editor
ARCHIVE/TECHNICIAN
Daniel Harrison, an N.C. State alumnus, marches in front of the Bell Tower for an ROTC Veteran’s Day vigil. The Student Veteran’s Association, which provides a variety of services for former military members, is discussing the possibility of building a veteran’s center if land and funding are available.
Veterans Association weighs options for a new building Estefania Castro-Vazquez Assistant News Editor
Members of N.C. State’s Student Veterans Association are considering opening a veteran’s center on campus if there’s funding and space available on campus. Tina Nelson, the advisor for the association, said it’s the mission of the SVA to figure out how to make the college experience better for veterans and recommend changes to University administrators. One of these changes would be a veterans center where veteran students could have their own place to study and connect with other student veterans, according to Nelson. Though the project is in the beginning stages, the SVA group trying to approve the center will discuss possible locations at its meeting Friday. If this project does move forward, the group will then look into the specifics of what exactly this vet-
eran’s space will provide and how it will be funded, Nelson said. As of September 2013, 595 N.C. State students are taking advantage of G.I. Bill benefits. Of these, 289 are military veterans while 306 are dependents or spouses. Of the veterans enrolled at N.C. State, 84 percent are male and 16 percent are female, according to the N.C. State Veterans’ Education Office site. Nelson said the center would be an addition to already existing services, such as an optional training opportunity for faculty and staff titled, “Veteran Students in the Classroom.” Nelson leads the program in which she discusses what it’s like to be in the military and the specific problems and needs that veteran students may have. “I go over things like if they have post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain damage and what that is
VETERAN continued page 3
Phishing attacks aimed at N.C. State students, faculty members and staff are increasing because attackers are discovering ways to obtain money from university accounts, according to Kerry Digou, Information Technology Manager for Security and Compliance. Within the last 30 to 60 days, institutions of higher education nationwide have noticed a huge uptick in phishing attempts, Digou said. “We’re seeing more of it now because the attackers have figured out how to monetize it,” Digou said. “Your account is worth money to them.” Phishers most commonly send emails posing as an official from N.C. State asking for Unity IDs and passwords. Their goal is to send out as many emails as possible in order to obtain the information of any University member who gets a paycheck through direct deposit, Digou said. If the phishers are able to get into an account, they can change the student or faculty member’s bank account information so the money is directly deposited into their bank account instead, Digou said. However, of the attacks that the Office of Information Technology can verify, about one percent of all phishing attempts at N.C. State are successful in retrieving account information, according to Digou. Stan Martin, director of outreach, communications and consulting for OIT, said when an account is compromised, that email address is often used to send more phish-
ing emails because N.C. State email addresses look familiar and are unlikely to be sent to spam folders. “It really is everybody’s responsibility to take the necessary precautions so their account doesn’t get hacked,” Martin said. “It’s not only them that is inconvenienced, but it also has an impact on the rest of the community because they are going to use that account to hit the rest of us.” OIT is still looking for different solutions to tackle this problem. “The emails are still working,” Digou said. “I don’t know what the solution to that is. We’ve said we will never ask for your information in an email or over the phone, and it still works.” Universities are a soft target for phishing attempts due to how open they need to be about publishing the personal information of students and employees, Martin said. In an effort to combat the rising phishing attempts, OIT has advised students to protect themselves by activating Google’s two-step authentication process, installing antivirus software, avoiding attachments from unfamiliar senders verifying hyperlinks before clicking and, most importantly, never sending sensitive information in an email. Last month, the Division of Human Resources decided to stop allowing online changes to direct deposit information, Martin said. Martin stressed the importance of paying attention to emails claiming to be from an N.C. State official. Many of the phishing emails
PHISHING continued page 3
Nuclear energy: a reliable option, speaker says UAB hosts cultural celebration Joseph Havey Staff Writer
Nuclear energy is the most reasonable alternative fuel source and should be considered as a renewable energy source, according to a Tuesday-night lecture on campus. Barry Brook, from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, spoke to about 100 students and professors about his view of nuclear energy and where it fits in the broader energy spectrum. In order to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, we should consider nuclear energy as the only reasonable alternative, he said. “I know it’s a controversial topic, but I think it’s important to take an evidence-based approach to the subject,” Brook said. It isn’t clear how renewable nuclear energy is, and it’s not environmentally friendly because of the radioactive waste generated, according to the environmental advocacy organization Greenpeace. However, uranium is not considered a fossil fuel either, like oil, gas or coal. Brook compared three different models for the future of energy in both the United States and in developing countries: The “Business As Usual” model, in which nothing changes about the makeup of fuel sources, the “Greenpeace” model, which relies almost entirely on renewable energy resources excluding nuclear, and the “Brook” model,
Susan Johnston Correspondent
Finally, the “Brook” model, designed by Brook himself, stresses nuclear energy and renewable energy. Of the three models, this produces the least greenhouse gas on the smallest amount of land. Brook pointed out France’s economy largely runs on nuclear power with great success. “The nuclear reactors of today are not your mother’s nuclear reactor,”
The Union Activities Board sponsored the Taste of N.C. State to showcase different cultures from around the world using food, music and dance Tuesday The event, founded in 2005, is designed to show appreciation for Asian, Indonesian, Hispanic and African cultures represented in the student body. The event was at the West Campus Amphitheater from 4-6 p.m and more than 100 students attended. Joann Ma, a board member of UAB, discussed the importance of celebrating different cultures on campus. “We wanted to host the Taste of N.C. State because we want to promote student diversity on campus,” Ma said. “That’s why we have different student organizations that come out and display their culture and display materials that represent their clubs, so we can promote student engagement.” Specifically the Indonesian Student Association, Asian Student Association and African Student
ENERGY continued page 3
CULTURE continued page 3
CHRIS RUPERT/TECHNICIAN
Barry W. Brook, Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change at the University of Adelaide, speaks about the effects of fossil fuel on the environment Tuesday in David Clark Labs.
which consists of more than 50 percent nuclear energy. The “Business As Usual” model will consume fewer land resources than the other two models, but will nearly quadruple the volume of greenhouse gases. Oil, coal and natural gas make up the bulk of energy sources—three resources environmentalists are quick to point out as nonrenewable. The “Greenpeace” model will
consume the most land resources, Brook said, because solar and wind farms take up a lot of space. This model will also cost the most because it relies on relatively new technology. “We need to accept that it takes a while to get technologies from the lab into the commercial world,” Brook said. “Many technologies look exciting in a lab, but they are no where near being commercialized.”
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