University ends auto-forwarding for student e-mail accounts

By Fabian Mayer, February 12 2016 —

The University of Calgary officially halted auto-forwarding for ucalgary e-mail accounts on Feb. 11.

Prior to this change, students were able to redirect e-mails sent to their ucalgary accounts to personal ones. The university has disabled this feature, claiming that accounts with auto-forwarding are at greater risk from hacking and phishing attacks.

Hackers accessed the PeopleSoft accounts of 29 university staff in September 2015 after log in details were obtained through a phishing attack. The hackers changed banking information of 13 accounts, rerouting paycheques.

According to the university, over 10,000 students and alumni used auto-forwarding. Students have received a series of e-mails over the past weeks informing them of the changes.

Students’ Union vice-president academic Stephan Guscott thinks the university has done a relatively good job informing students, but has some concerns about the timing of the move.

“It’s right around midterms,” Guscott said. “[Students] might be in a difficult position because they might not be getting communications that might be really important for their class.”

The university is recommending students install ucalgary e-mail accounts on their smartphone.