Laurentian University donors targeted by phishing scam

Some of Laurentian University's donors may have been targeted by a phishing attempt.

The phishing email might come as a request for money ora request to review an invoice and appears as though it was sent from the university's Advancement Office.

Luc Roy, Laurentian's Chief Information Officer, said the university has investigated. And so far, Roy said, targets haven't fallen for the trick.

Roy is also giving assurances that over the course of the phishing attempts, the university's systems were not breached.

"There's no private information stolen, there's nothing that would actually compromise the users," he said. "But the potential compromise or issue is that they could actually fall victim of a phishing attempt."

Roy added that the university will soon be implementing a new authentication system to protect its faculty, staff, and students.

"We have what's called a two-factor authentication, so not only will it ask you for your password, but will ask you to also authenticate yourself in some other ways," Roy said. "We give [users] options on how to do that, so that really protects us."

In 2017, a Laurentian student was charged after hacking the university to demonstrate vulnerabilities in its system.