Your Disabled UWSP Account

If you received a text message (i.e., SMS message) directing you to this page…

your UWSP account Has been disabled due to suspicious activity.

Most likely your UWSP email account was hijacked. This means that the Information Security Office has identified your email account as sending a large volume of email containing links to websites known to support malicious software.

Accounts are hijacked when a username and password become known by another user. Compromised accounts are often the result of phishing attacks where a person enters their username and password into a website created with the sole purpose of collecting your secure data. Compromised accounts are then used to spread malicious software, steal personal information, and commit identity theft.

If you received an email from Microsoft stating, “Your message couldn’t be delivered because you weren’t recognized as a valid sender”? Microsoft identified the large volume of email as SPAM and blocked your UWSP account from sending further external email. You should contact the UWSP Service Desk for help at https://help.uwsp.edu.

After UWSP’s Information Security Office learned that your account was compromised, the following steps were taken:

  • We reset your password to a random set of characters and numbers using an automated script. See below for how to re-enable your account.
  • We disabled suspicious forwarding rules set on your mailbox. Often attackers will use forwarding rules to continue collecting information about an account so they can potentially use it in another attack.
  • We removed all delegates from your email account. Sometimes attackers will add themselves as delegates to an email account, which helps them maintain control of account.
  • We removed any suspicious delete rules set on your mailbox. Sometimes attackers will setup delete rules to prevent a user from seeing messages from their IT department with warnings about suspicious activity.

How to re-enable your UWSP account

To re-enable your UWSP account, you must do the following:

  • Set a new password. Visit UWSP’s reset password page at http://www.uwsp.edu/it/ulam2/changepwd/. After providing answers to the security questions you completed when you first activated your UWSP account, you will be able to set a new password.
  • Re-enable any legitimate forwarding rules we disabled on your email account.
  • Re-add any legitimate delegates we removed from your email account.
  • Re-create any legitimate delete rules we deleted from your email account.
  • If you used your UWSP account’s password on any other websites (bad practice), change them immediately to a password different from your UWSP password.
  • Visit sites like https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/support-scams to learn how to protect yourself from future attacks.

If you have any problems with resetting your password, please contact the IT Service Desk at https://help.uwsp.edu.

Learn how to protect yourself from phishing!