This is correct! Even if you think you are taking measures to do the right thing, you might still be at risk-- some programs automatically reset themselves every time you reboot, even if you've set your file-sharing software to download only.

To be on the safe side, get rid of your P2P software and get your media only from fully licensed websites like iTunes™ or Real Rhapsody™, or directly from the artist's web page. Visit safecomputing.umich.edu/copyright to learn more about what U-M is doing to educate students on P2P file sharing.

Correct! Any e-mail which asks you to click a link or e-mail your password should be viewed with suspicion. Visit http://safecomputing.umich.edu/main/phishing_alerts/ for known examples of recent phishing e-mails, or call 764-HELP if you have questions.

Correct! They say there's a sucker born every minute. Don't be one of them. Scammers can do a lot of damage with just a little bit of information–a lot of which is available on Facebook™. Be careful about what you post on social networking sites: don't post a lot of specific information (high school attended and year of graduation; complete birth date; home address), or use the privacy settings so that just your friends can see it.

An infected computer can send out tens of thousands of e-mails, each carrying the virus. Often it will use your e-mail address book to find new people to attack by pretending to be something they're not (a 'trojan'), for example, a file that looks like it contains a picture of a celebrity.

An infected computer can also scan the Internet looking for computers that are vulnerable to attack and send them a copy of the virus.
(Source: http://www.getsafeonline.org/)

To protect your Windows™ computer, it's good practice to set up an account with reduced rights for browsing the Internet. This limits the amount of damage that a virus picked up from the Internet can inflict on your computer. Under Win7/Vista, use the User Access Control feature, which will prompt you for your Admin password when you need to perform other tasks. Under XP, either right-click the application and select [Run As] and run as admin, or use the DropMyRights application from Microsoft.

Text messages can contain files that could corrupt your phone, which is particularly harmful if you have a smart phone. It's hard not to be curious about a text sent from an unfamiliar phone number, but do yourself a favor and don't respond, just delete.

If you use your UMICH password for another online account and it's breached, then the attacker can use that password to access your U-M account. It really happens.

The university will NEVER ask for private information, like a password or account number, in an e-mail.

This is correct! Even though they may look legit, those pop-up windows are just cleverly disguised malware. The very best way to handle this situation is to back out of the browser without clicking anywhere–even clicking the small x in the upper right corner of the window that typically closes it could trigger an infection. To close out of your browser:

• For Windows™, right-click the title bar of your browser window and select "Close."
• On a Mac™, press Command-W to close the active window.
• To be safe, run an anti-virus scan afterwards.

Even if you don't have much money to steal, someone just a few years out of high school has a valuable identity that can be stolen and used to obtain new lines of credit. By reviewing your report annually, you can protect yourself by acting quickly if something is amiss. Another good habit to practice is shredding credit card offers if your name is pre-printed on the application.

Smart phones are rapidly becoming the preferred way to access the web. They are also vulnerable to the same kinds of security threats such as malicious e-mail attachments and a lot easier to lose than a laptop. So treat your smart phone the same way you would a laptop: set a PIN code to lock the screen in case you lose it, and install security apps to provide protection against malware.

This is correct! There are a number of privacy settings that you can use on Facebook™ to control who can see your information. When you're logged into Facebook™, check under Account > Privacy Settings > Controlling How You Share to learn more.

Also, complex passwords take much longer to crack than simple ones–in some cases, millennia. The university recommends using at LEAST nine characters, with numbers, mixed-case letters and punctuation thrown in. And whatever you do, please don't use your UMICH password for any other website!