Do you know a phishing scam when you see one?

In recent weeks, University of Iowa faculty and staff have opened their e-mail inboxes to find a message purportedly sent by a University of Iowa support team. The message claims that a database upgrade is under way, and in order to avoid deletion of e-mail accounts, the recipient must send his or her username, password, date of birth, and country or territory.

This is to “phishing” what a shiny lure or juicy worm is to fishing.

The e-mail from UIOWA Support is not legitimate—the Information Technology Services (ITS) department at the University will never request that a UI employee send his or her Hawk ID password via e-mail. As these attacks continue to infiltrate inboxes, ITS is seeking to keep fellow UI employees off the hook of identity thieves by offering advice on ways to avoid phishing scams.

Belin-Blank Center to mark 20 years of service to international gifted education community

At 34, Katie Porter is an associate professor in the University of Iowa College of Law and a nationally recognized expert on bankruptcy law. Some 20 years earlier, Porter was an Iowa farm girl from a small community south of Winterset, participating in the initial Iowa Governor’s Institute for the Gifted and Talented in 1988.

Porter credits her involvement with the institute—a two-week residential program administered by the University of Iowa Connie Belin & Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development—as a critical part of her current success.

Audio slide show: Reflections of a glassblower

When glass equipment cracks in the Chemistry Building, there is no panic. With decades of experience as a glassblower, Peter Hatch heats up his flame, and everything's cool. Beakers are fixed, tubes are made like new. Hatch visited with fyi while working at his shop, talking about his career choice and his favorite aspects of the job.

See the slide show...

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