Thursday, November 22, 2018

Who goes there? Beware of imposter email threats

A message from Information Systems & Technology (IST)

IST has detected an increase in malicious email known as “Imposter email threats” on campus. These threats, also known as “business email compromise” and “CEO fraud”, are a class of financial phishing email where the sender of the email is pretending to be a senior executive of an organization.

How does it work?

• The imposter will target employees at the institution requesting an urgent payment or wire transfer be made.
• The imposter may claim to be indisposed (e.g. at a conference, in a meeting) and making the payment in this fashion is, as a result, the only way.
• Email replies from the recipient to the imposter will be answered.

Imposter email threats at Waterloo

Actual threats received to date have used the name of one of the University’s leadership. These emails will usually show a valid display name (i.e. who the email is from), but will use an off-campus address. Be sure to verify the sender’s email address before replying to any suspicious email.

Verifying the sender’s address

There may be different ways to check the from address of a suspicious email, depending on the email client being used. Some common methods include:

• Review the display name
  • It may show the suspicious email address, not an actual name
• Hover your cursor over the email display name
  • You may then need to hover over the envelope icon
• Click the (circle) icon beside the sender’s display name and view their contact card

Please visit IST’s Cyber Awareness website for information on how you can protect yourself from being (fin)phished.

Velocity Fund Finals take place next Tuesday

The 23^rd Velocity Fund Finals will take place on Tuesday, November 27  from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. University of Waterloo students and alumni will pitch their innovative startups for the chance to win funding to grow their businesses, and to receive workspace in the Velocity Garage, Canada’s most productive startup incubator.

Ten companies will compete for four prizes of $25,000, and judges will present one company with an additional $10,000 for the top hardware pitch. Another ten startups will compete for four awards of $5,000.

The pitch competition will take place in the Student Life Centre, Great Hall. The $5K competition starts at 11:00 a.m., and the $25K competition starts at 1:00 p.m., with the event wrapping up at 3:00 p.m.

Register to attend. If you can’t make it in person, the event will also be livesteamed on Facebook.  

The $25K finalists are:

• Brink Bionics, which is developing bionic arms with machine learning that integrate with the human body and provide amputees with a more intuitive experience;
• CataLight, which is making safe drinking water accessible for all by developing a new kind of water treatment solution;
• Glove Systems, which is modernizing complex fabrication through software that uses advanced 3D imaging algorithms to help pipe fitters do their jobs better;
• Intelline, which designs and manufactures affordable and scalable cryocoolers, enabling the widespread commercial use of superconductor-based technologies;
• Membio, which is developing the first truly scalable biological manufacturing platform;
• Pulse Industrial, which is developing a smart monitoring system for steam traps to improve safety and reduce CO2 emissions;
• Recycl3D Planet, which uses patented technologies to turn water bottles into 3D printing filaments that outperform virgin plastic and conduct electricity;
• RentHero, a virtual rental assistant that answers tenant questions and qualifies renters on behalf of landlords;
• Soft Transport BioSystem, which is developing synthetic viruses to deliver nucleic acids for in vivo targeted gene therapies and molecular biology applications;
• Sundays in the Park, which is building fashion-forward heated outerwear using flexible nano-materials for people living in urban environments.

The $5K finalists are:

• BeBlended, which provides modern and accessible hair care services for people of colour;
• Embedded Medical Systems, which develops robots and tools to perform minimally invasive surgeries;
• FEM in STEM, which empowers young women to develop careers in underrepresented industries through programming and resources;
• Lighthouse Analytics, an out of the box analytics solution that generates mission-critical insights for small businesses;
• Material Futures Lab, which uses bacteria to create natural eco-friendly pigments for textile dyeing;
• OleoTech, which is using oleophilic properties of fiber from waste tires to remove hydrocarbons in stormwater runoff;
• Pensill, which makes it easy to find graduate projects and academic opportunities;
• PriveHealth​, a gamified cybersecurity training platform for healthcare professionals; and
• Smartlines, which is developing a smart sports betting aggregator to show users the best odds, all the time.

Donna Ellis named president elect of POD Network

The Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education has just announced that Donna Ellis, director of Waterloo’s Centre for Teaching Excellence, has been selected as POD’s next President Elect.

Donna’s three-year term, which will begin in March 2019, is a capstone to her long history of involvement with POD: since 1996, she has participated in 21 POD Annual Conferences, twice served on its Board of Directors, co-chaired its Annual Conference, served as a facilitator for POD-sponsored workshops for new educational developers, chaired the Finance Committee, and led awards committees for many years. Regarding this new role, Donna comments that she is “extremely excited about having this opportunity to serve a professional association that has been so influential and important to me for more than two decades.” CTE staff members are very proud that their Director has achieved this important role. 

The POD Network has been advancing the research and practice of educational development in higher education since 1976. It is the largest and oldest educational development organization in the world. Its nearly 1400 members come from the United States, Canada, and 23 other countries. Donna is the second Canadian to serve at this level with the POD Network.

Thursday's tales and travails

The Water Institute is seeking to recruit participants drawn from the University of Waterloo's staff for a focus group discussion about water quality in the Grand River on Wednesday, November 28 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in EIT 3002. The Water Institute needs 8 to 10 volunteers across different age groups (20+) who have lived at least 10 years in the K-W area to participate in the study, which focuses on public awareness and understanding of water quality in the Grand River.

Participation involves a group discussion approximately 90 minutes in length. The discussion will be around questions of how aware participants are of water quality and how important this is to them. Each participant will be offered $25 for their participation.

As part of the upcoming 2018 #16daysUW campaign, a poster exhibition for Gender in War and Peace entitled "Gendered Conflicts and the Pursuit of Peace" will be taking place on Thursday, November 29 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Conrad Grebel University College's atrium. Baked goods will be for sale and donations will be accepted for the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region at the event.

#16daysUW is part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence campaign, which the University of Waterloo participates in annually.