Case in Point

Each month in Case in Point we attempt to bring relevant information on new and emerging risks. One risk we’ve noticed increasing here at AU recently is that of phishing. Scammers are using artificial intelligence to enhance phishing attempts, and frankly, some of these can be very good and hard to detect. Recent attacks have particularly targeted leadership at our campus.

For more insight on this topic, I’m handing the reigns to one of our front-line defenders against attacks here at AU. Jay James is a cybersecurity leader and educator serving as Cybersecurity Operations Manager at Auburn University, where he oversees the Security Operations Center and various AI enabled security initiatives across the institution.

Social engineering has always relied on one basic principle: convincing someone to act. Artificial intelligence has made that easier.

When a message feels routine, phishing becomes far more effective. It remains one of the most common ways attackers gain access to systems because a well-timed email referencing a real project, event, or deadline rarely raises suspicion. With AI tools making that level of detail easy to generate, the likelihood of falling for a phishing email increases substantially.

In many cases, email serves as the first step in a broader effort. Email is often only the starting point.

A phone call may follow, using AI voice tools that replicate speech from short audio samples. The caller may sound like a supervisor requesting urgent action or approving a transaction. Short video clips created through what is commonly known as “Deep Fakes” can appear to show a familiar face delivering instructions. A text message can arrive minutes later with a link, reinforcing the earlier request.

In some cases, these contacts are coordinated. In an example scenario, an employee first receives an email about a payroll update. Shortly afterward, a call comes from someone who sounds like a department leader confirming it. A text message follows with a link to complete the change.

Each interaction makes the situation feel more legitimate.

These tactics rely on urgency, authority, and familiarity. When multiple channels are used together, the pressure increases and the time to think decreases.
Technical safeguards block many threats before they reach users, yet some messages still arrive in inboxes or on phones. That is where individual judgment matters.

Here are a few consistent habits that can significantly reduce risk:

1. Pause when a request feels urgent or unusually specific: AI can generate detailed messages that reference real projects, deadlines, or colleagues to prompt quick action.
2. Verify independently, even if the sender looks or sounds familiar: AI voice cloning and deepfake tools can imitate trusted individuals. Confirm through a known phone number or direct conversation.
3. Access systems directly and decline unexpected prompts: AI-generated phishing pages closely mimic legitimate login portals. Type official web addresses yourself and reject unexpected multi-factor authentication requests.
4. Do not trust surface indicators: Caller ID, display names, writing style, and even video clips can be fabricated using AI tools.
5. Report suspicious activity immediately: AI enables attackers to target multiple individuals quickly. Early reporting helps identify patterns and limit impact.

Social engineering succeeds when action happens before verification. Taking a brief pause to confirm a request through a trusted channel can prevent account compromise, financial loss, and disruption to operations.

Thank you, Jay, for this great information and advice. While phishing is important, it is but one of many risks we continually face in higher education. Therefore, we invite you to review the events of the prior month with a view toward proactively managing risks. As always, we welcome your feedback.

Feb 25: Data Breach: Fort Scott Community College, a public institution in Kansas, recently experienced a data breach affecting thousands of individuals in the United States. The breach was first discovered on Nov. 23, 2025, when the college identified suspicious activity on its computer systems. Action was taken to isolate impacted systems and engage both internal IT professionals and external cybersecurity experts to secure and remediate the affected infrastructure. (link)

Feb 19: Cyberattack: Officials are confirming many IT systems, including the electronic medical records system, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, are down Thursday, following a cyberattack. In a statement, officials said outpatient and ambulatory surgeries and procedures, as well as imaging appointments, have been canceled. (link)

Feb 09: Outage: At 9:02 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 8, a message was sent to all American River College students and staff informing them of an internet outage that the main campus and ARC Centers are experiencing due to a "college hardware issue," according to the Los Rios Information Technology Department. (link)

Feb 04: Ransomware: A notorious hacking group has claimed responsibility for last year’s data breaches at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and published the data that they claim to have stolen from the two schools. On Wednesday, the group known as ShinyHunters published what it claims are more than 1 million records from each university on the group’s dedicated leak site, which the gang uses to extort its victims. (link)

Feb 02: Ransomware: Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund dba Tulane University Medical Group (TUMG) recently experienced a data breach involving the unauthorized access and potential exfiltration of sensitive data. The breach has affected 6,530 individuals in the United States. The CL0P Ransomware group actor posted on the Tor network on Nov. 18, 2025, claiming responsibility for the attack. (link)

Feb 18: Financial Mismanagement: Stephen Agostini is out as UCLA’s chief financial officer, Chancellor Julio Frenk announced in a campuswide email Tuesday. The change in leadership comes four days after the Daily Bruin published a story in which Agostini - who had served as UCLA’s CFO since May 2024 - alleged that the university’s financial mismanagement contributed to a $425 million annual deficit. Agostini also alleged that UCLA’s unaudited annual financial reports it had been posting on its website since 2002 contained substantial errors. (link)

Feb 12: Academic Integrity: A student sued the University of Michigan this week alleging an instructor falsely accused her of writing papers with artificial intelligence. The Ohio woman, named Jane Doe in the lawsuit filed Feb. 9 in Detroit federal court, said her writing style can be misinterpreted as AI. She says it is due to "documented disabilities" of generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. (link)

Feb 12: Foreign Ties: U.S. colleges received more than 5 billion dollars in reportable foreign gifts and contracts in 2025, according to a new website from the U.S. Education Department. The release is part of a push by the Trump administration to make foreign influence in colleges and universities more transparent. (link)

Feb 09: Academic Integrity: Adelphi University student Orion Newby was celebrating on Monday after a court found that he did not use artificial intelligence to cheat on a paper. Newby was able to prove it was all his work, assisted by school tutors. "Higher education needs to take a very careful look at this and we think the court's opinion in the Newby case is really groundbreaking," former U.S. attorney Mark Lesko said, referring to students getting due process. (link)

Feb 04: Financial Mismanagement: [The former] president of Utah State University said she wanted some "basic upgrades" done on her office. The original plan was to spend $10,000 for new carpet and a fresh coat of paint. By the time the work was done, the total cost neared $300,000 for what had become a complete and lavish office remodel. (link)

Feb 24: Title VI: The Trump administration sued the University of California on Tuesday, accusing its Los Angeles campus of endemic antisemitism that compromised the civil rights of Jewish employees. (link)

Feb 13: Admissions Lawsuit: The Trump administration sued Harvard University on Friday, accusing the Ivy League school of failing to produce documents sought as part of a Justice Department investigation into whether its admissions process discriminates against white applicants. The Justice Department’s lawsuit on Friday stems from federal investigations opened last year to examine Harvard’s admissions process for its undergraduate, law and medical schools. (link)

Feb 12: Employee Conduct: An Ohio State University faculty member has been placed on leave after striking an independent journalist who was attempting an on-campus interview. Mike Newman was attempting to interview former university president Gordon Gee in the hallway of the Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society. Another man steps in front of the cameraman. (link)

Feb 11: Employee Conduct: Yale University says a prominent computer science professor will not teach classes while it reviews his conduct, after newly released documents show he sent Jeffrey Epstein an email describing an undergraduate as a good-looking blonde while recommending her for a job. (link)

Feb 09: DEI: Another unsuspecting subject of an activist group’s undercover videos at UNC System schools is now out of a job. This time, the group targeted NC State University’s LGBTQ Pride Center. The group Accuracy in Media has posted videos shot at universities across North Carolina and in other states that it says shows evidence of diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campuses where such programming is restricted. (link)

Feb 04: First Amendment: A former Texas A&M University faculty member who was fired after she discussed gender identity during a lesson filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday, moving a clash over academic freedom into a courtroom. (link)

Feb 25: Campus Protest: Eight Swarthmore students are facing possible expulsion for distributing protest materials. The materials criticize members of the college’s board of managers for ties to Israel and use imagery and rhetoric that the college administration says "threatened, intimidated, and/or promoted potential violence on campus." (link)

Feb 25: SA: The College of St. Benedict and St. John's University is responding after a second SJU student was charged with sexual assault. Charges were filed against two St. John's University students this year, both accused of sexually assaulting women on the College of St. Benedict campus. The St. Joseph Police Department investigated the two incidents and the Stearns County Attorney's Office has officially filed charges. (link)

Feb 23: Speech: Hunter College, a top public university in New York City, said on Sunday that it would review whether "abhorrent remarks" made by a professor at a public meeting violated the institution’s policies. (link)

Feb 20: Speech: Coastal Carolina Community College says a psychology instructor who criticized Turning Point USA has been fired. (link)

Feb 19: Speech: Job candidates required to describe how they would advance "decolonization." A video that suggests starting meetings by identifying oneself as a "settler" on unceded native lands. A political scientist who says he was instructed to teach game theory "from an Indigenous perspective." Each, a practice at the University of British Columbia, is now evidence in a lawsuit brought against the school by a group of professors who claim such social-justice efforts violate a provincial law requiring universities to stay out of politics. (link)

Feb 19: Speech: The Mott Community College board of trustees convened a special meeting on Wednesday to address complaints against Mott Community College President Shaunda Richardson-Snell for allegedly attempting to convert others to Christianity. (link)

Feb 19: Hazing: Newly public police-worn body camera footage from a hazing case at a University of Iowa fraternity show over two dozen blindfolded men covered in substances in a basement, over a year after the initial incident. Iowa City police and fire departments and the University of Iowa police responded to a fire alarm at the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house on Nov. 15, 2024, where they discovered 56 blindfolded pledges, with food thrown on them. (link)

Feb 18: SA: Marquette University police are looking for a suspect involved in an armed robbery and sexual assault of a student near campus. A female Marquette student reports that a man approached her at 1:55 a.m. near N. 14th Street and W. Kilbourn Avenue. He allegedly displayed a weapon and then sexually assaulted her before she turned over property to him. (link)

Feb 17: Assault: American freestyle skier Eileen Gu is opening up about some of the difficult moments she’s had to deal with since choosing to compete for China in the Olympics in 2019. The star athlete claims she was "physically assaulted on the street" while on campus at Sanford University, and had to call police over the incident. "I’ve had death threats," she added. "I’ve had my dorm robbed. I’ve gone through some things as a 22-year-old that I really think no one should ever have to endure, ever." (link)

Feb 16: Hazing: Clemson University now has another fraternity on probation for hazing after a fourth was added to the list. According to Clemson’s Organizational Conduct Cases report, Delta Chi was the only organization under investigation from fall 2025. (link)

Feb 13: Hazing: A University of Michigan fraternity’s chapter was suspended following an investigation into a violation of fraternity policies and the university’s policy against hazing. (link)

Feb 12: Hazing: A University of Alabama fraternity has been suspended for four years after hazing incidents last year, according to university records. Delta Sigma Phi lost university recognition and its chapter house until 2030 after hazing incidents in April and September of 2025. (link)

Feb 09: Surveillance: UNC-Chapel Hill is putting finishing touches on a university-wide policy governing recording of classes that would allow administrators to secretly record faculty in some cases. Discussion of the need for such a policy began nearly two years ago, after the business school recorded [a] professor without his knowledge in order to review his "class content and conduct." (link)

Feb 09: Health: Campus safety conversations often focus on visible risks, yet one of the most fragile points sits quietly in the background. Many institutions struggle to maintain clear and reliable health documentation for students and staff. That gap might sound administrative, but it becomes a real threat when responders need information that simply isn’t there or isn’t correct. A missing allergy note, an outdated record on a chronic condition, or incomplete mental health history can slow decisions at the exact moment time matters most. (link)

Feb 09: SA: The arrest happened quietly, but it landed like a weight. A former University of Virginia wide receiver, was taken into custody this week after an Albemarle County grand jury indicted him on one count of rape and one count of abduction. Universities have spent the past decade promising they take sexual misconduct seriously, while simultaneously running elite sports programmes that operate with their own internal logic. When a player is accused of a violent felony, the public inevitably asks whether the institution's policies are designed for accountability--or for containment. (link)

Feb 08: Campus Security: The ACC fined North Carolina $50,000 on Sunday, the result of the university violating "the league's event security policy" at the end of a chaotic win over rival Duke a night earlier in Chapel Hill. The fan behavior was at the front of Duke coach Jon Scheyer's mind after the game. He said he had staff members who "got punched in the face" as fans stormed the court. (link)

Feb 07: Robbery: A gunpoint robbery at a University of Houston housing complex is raising new concerns about safety, especially in an area packed with fraternities and sororities. UH police say the suspect displayed a gun, demanded purses, then took off. The robbery happened in the parking lot just outside the Bayou Oaks gate, where UH police say the suspect carried out the holdup. (link)

Feb 05: Health: The University of Florida said Thursday it was investigating two college classrooms where measles exposures may have occurred. Additionally, six other confirmed measles cases were reported across northern Florida in new data published by the Florida Department of Health. (link)

Feb 05: Hazing: Two men who were sophomores at Arizona State University at the time have filed a lawsuit accusing the national Sigma Alpha Epsilon organization, its ASU chapter and 54 individual fraternity members of subjecting them to months of violent and dangerous hazing during the spring 2024 semester. The university said the new allegations outlined in the Stevens-Brajevic lawsuit are under investigation and encouraged students with additional information or concerns to contact the Dean of Students Office. (link)

Feb 05: Speech: As the Trump administration continues to clamp down on protest and free speech, UCLA has fired DEI director Johnathan Perkins for social media comments he made after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, the Los Angeles Times reported. (link)

Feb 05: Campus Protest: A dozen Columbia University faculty and staff members and students were taken into custody on Thursday after blocking traffic on Broadway for nearly an hour as they protested President Trump’s immigration crackdown and demanded that Columbia provide more protections for international students. (link)

Feb 05: Assault: Oakland University police are on the scene investigating a stabbing on campus. The incident happened Thursday night at Van Wagoner House on the Oakland University campus near Meadow Brook Road. Police say an altercation occurred that led to the victim being stabbed. The victim was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment. Their current condition is unknown but police say they are undergoing surgery. (link)

Feb 05: SA: Radnor police are investigating a reported rape on the campus of Eastern University in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. A student reported being sexually assaulted at a residence hall by another student and two of his friends in the overnight hours from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1, according to Eastern University's Department of Public Safety. (link)

Feb 04: SA: A student at Iowa State University has been arrested after police say [...] he sexually assaulted a woman who passed out after drinking on Halloween last year at the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity house on Welch Avenue in Ames. (link)

Feb 04: Academic Freedom: College professors once taught free from political interference, with mostly their students and colleagues privy to their lectures and book assignments. Now, they are being watched by state officials, senior administrators and students themselves. (link)

Feb 02: SA: Villanova University police have arrested and charged a student with raping another student. The university says the arrest stems from an assault that took place in December. According to court records, the rape happened at Good Counsel Hall. (link)

Feb 02: Hazing: An 18-year-old Northern Arizona University student is dead after police said he attended a rush event at a fraternity house Friday night. Police said they responded to the fraternity house just before 9 a.m. Saturday for reports of an unresponsive person. Following the 18-year-old’s death, three NAU students and Delta Tau Delta fraternity members were arrested and booked into the Coconino County Detention Facility. (link)

Feb 01: Theft: Two University of Cincinnati students were arrested and charged with breaking into Fifth Third Arena, where they reportedly stole alcohol, according to a Hamilton County Municipal Court affidavit. (link)