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QNA
Doha
Qatar University (QU) has denied hacking of its website and said the infrastructure of the website protection system is strong, consistent, and constantly updated.
In a statement, the QU said all the website's information is under full protection, pointing out that it was only an attempt to control e-mail accounts of some of the students, what is technically known as"phishing".
Concerning"phishing", Qatar University explained that an anonymous email is sent to receiver, asking the account holder to enter data such as passwords, and to use those accounts later to send similar emails to a larger number of accounts.
The university stressed that after follow up and inventory, it was found that the number of those affected by this attempt is very limited, and their accounts were fully restored, without losing any information.
It said the Information Technology Services Department (ITS) took necessary security measures immediately after reporting the"phishing" of e-mail accounts to protect the affected accounts, and also to inform the university community not to respond to such emails, and ignore and report these emails.
The QU said"phishing" attempts targeting e-mail accounts are ongoing. It said that the only way to avoid the occurrence of such problems is to ignore the opening of anonymous emails, or to click on an unknown link, and report it immediately to those responsible for the security and protection of networks.
The statement stressed that Qatar University is continuously asking its employees through e-mails not to respond to such messages, and to take maximum precautions when dealing with these emails.
"What happened is not hacking as reported by some newspapers, which published inaccurate information, and that this is technically known as"phishing" in which the user himself presents his or her account data. This happens in all the systems across the world," the statement said quoting Director of Information Technology Services at Qatar University Dr Salem al Naemi.
Naemi said that the matter is simple and is under control, and called on all university employees to be careful and immediately report anything suspicious.
