The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929. Proud Recipient of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors’ Award for 2015-2016 College Newspaper of the Year
MARCH 1, 2017
VOLUME 87, ISSUE 19
ARTS & LIFE: OSCARS P. 11
SPORTS: JESSICA LEE P. 16
QUCHRONICLE.COM OPINION: TURNING 21 P. 7
Quinnipiac continues dominance over Yale
Information security warns about fake tech support By MATT GRAHN Staff Writer
See pages 8-9 ERIN KANE/CHRONICLE
Quinnipiac’s men’s ice hockey team celebrates after junior forward Landon Smith gave the team a 3-0 lead over Yale in Friday’s win.
DJ Tiësto to ‘Wake the Giant’ By SAM BASHAW
Associate Arts & Life Editor
With exactly 14:28 remaining in the second period of the Quinnipiac vs. Yale men’s ice hockey game this past Friday, the Student Programming Board (SPB) made the announcement everyone was waiting for. The Jumbotron lit up and for a mere couple of seconds, High Point Solutions Arena focused on something other than beating the Bulldogs. Nick Sczerbinski, assistant director of marketing and fan engagement, was deep into the student section when his mic suddenly went on and he asked a nearby student who she thought would be the artist for the Wake the Giant, SPB’s spring concert. Out of three choices, one being the famed Calvin Harris, the fan chose Tiësto, an electronic dance music (EDM) DJ.
When McEachern was first contacted, she was afraid of what might happen to her computer. “‘If you don’t pay, then your computer will be shut down forever,’ so obviously I paid,” she said, recalling what the person on the phone told her. McEachern only found out it was a scam when she later told her friend, who is an Apple employee. McEachern called the company back and ended up getting refunded.
Sczerbinski drew the crowds attention to the jumbotron for the official announcement, heightening the already tense environment. The upbeat sounds of EDM played over the speakers as SPB’s promo video for the artist played, dragging the anticipation along even more so. After a brutal couple of seconds the word “Tiësto” in all caps flashed across the screen and the rink exploded in excitement.
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DJ Tiësto is best known for his songs “Red Light” and “Wasted.”
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Recently, a tech support employee notified senior Lezlie McEachern that her computer had a virus on it, or so she thought. McEachern was told to call a number so she could get her computer fixed. The “repair” was done in an hour. In reality, there was no virus, and McEachern paid $250 for nothing. Lately, there has been a trend where people impersonate tech support in order to take people’s money, according to Brian Kelly, Quinnipiac’s chief information security officer. These fake techs, pretending to be from a company like Apple or Microsoft, will contact an individual by phone or email first, according to Kelly. Then, they’ll walk the person through the steps of treating the supposed issue using remote access, as if they were legitimate tech support. “It’s not sophisticated hacking. They’re basically asking the user to take the action, and the user is doing it for them,” Kelly said. When McEachern was first contacted, she was afraid of what might happen to her computer. Once the scammer has access to your computer, he says they usually just pretend to fix your computer and charge for the service. However, due to the nature of remote access, sensitive data, like search history or banking information, can also be taken. Part of the scam requires the individual to call a toll-free number. One number in particular, 1-855-971-2627, was mentioned in the MyQ announcement about the scam. The presence of this number in relation to the scam goes back to at least 2015, and is mentioned on a Virginia Tech website. One way to protect yourself from this particular scam is to verify the party talking to you. Kelly says that, in terms of customer support, most companies won’t contact someone proactively. In that event, one should contact the company directly and see if the claim is accurate. “If you don’t initiate that conversation, you probably don’t want to have it,” he said. Kelly said that he has heard of many students getting calls saying that they needed to have viruses cleaned out of their computer. Kelly says that, though he had to help out a student’s father, none of the students he had heard from fell for the scam.
Opinion: 6 Arts & Life: 10 Interactive: 13 Sports: 14