Fake Microsoft Emails Are Targeting You
How to spot that it is fake
1 – Panic Language – “Blocked,” “105%,” “syncing is paused” – scams rush you so you don’t stop to think.
2 – Sent to the wrong person – It asks you to “manage the subscription for this organization” – real admin alerts go to IT, not to staff.
3 – Sloppy details – The time says “UTC” but shows a Pacific offset, and junk code (“MIME [Subject]”) and a broken image sit at the bottom.
4 – Generic sign-off – “The Office 365 team” and “Support Team.” – no names, no real contact info.
5 – Every line is a link – Hover (don’t click) and the address will not be a microsoft.com page.
Be suspicious of ANY email like these
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Account Alerts
“Unusual sign-in,” “account suspended,” “verify your identity”
Password Expiration
“Your password expires today – keep current password”
Billing & Payment
“Payment failed,” “invoice attached,” “renew your subscription”
Storage & Mailbox
“OneDrive full,” “mailbox quota exceeded,” “messages on hold”
What to do instead
2 – Check the real way. Open a browser and go to office.com yourself, or open the Outlook/OneDrive app. Real problems will show there.
3 – Report it. Use the Report button in Outlook or take a screenshot of the email and send to IT.
4 – Already clicked or typed your password? Call us right away. Fast action stops the damage – you will NOT be in trouble.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
We recently experienced another significant disruption affecting many of the web-based services we rely on daily. As we communicated earlier, the root cause was an outage with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which was entirely outside of our control.
If you’re interested in learning more, the brief summary below explains what AWS is and why this issue impacted our systems.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud provider used by countless companies across the internet. So when AWS experiences issues, the effects are widespread—like the internet catching a cold when Amazon sneezes.
Despite the name, “the cloud” is essentially a network of data centers—large warehouses filled with computers. In this case, the disruption stemmed from a DNS issue in AWS’s North Virginia data center region. DNS (Domain Name System) acts like the internet’s address book, helping apps and websites locate the servers they need to function.
Even if the data center itself is running fine, a DNS problem means those services can’t be found—like a mail carrier trying to deliver a letter with a smudged address. And because this happened in Amazon’s largest data center complex, the impact was even more significant.
Important Links & Tools
- When opening up the Google Chrome web browser you should see a folder called “CBPS” on the far left of your bookmark bar. This folder has some important shortcuts that you may find yourself going to quite a bit.
- You will login with your district Google account (“username”@cbk12.com)
- This is our ticketing/work order system for both Information Technology and Facilities.
- If you have an emergency you may call IT at extension 1200, or Facilities at extension 1901, otherwise, please use the ticketing system to submit a work order.
- GoGuardian Teacher allows teachers to:
- View student screens in real time to ensure they stay on task.
- Open or close browser tabs remotely, lock screens, or present their own screen to students.
- Chat with students individually or send announcements to the whole class.
- Apply filtering rules (called “Scenes”) to control which websites students can access during class.
- Schedule class sessions in advance, which is especially useful for substitute days.
- Receive daily summary emails with insights into student activity, including websites visited, commands used, and session durations.
- Resources:
- You will choose the “Log in with Google” option:
- It is important that all district staff register their ParentSquare account.
- Not only is this tool used for communication with parents and sometimes students, but this is also the primary communication that the district will use for things like school closures, weather delays, and more.
- You may receive emails from the system if you haven’t registered reminding you to do so.
- You can also install the app for the convenience on your phone.
- With this product, you must sign in with your primary district account (“username”@coos-bay.k12.or.us), choose the “Sign in with Microsoft” option.
- “username”@coos-bay.k12.or.us
- Microsoft Account
- Your official district email account
- If using a Windows device this is the account you will use to sign in.
- Access to Microsoft 365 online: Office apps, OneDrive, SharePoint, Online Email
- “username”@cbk12.com
- Google for Education Account
- Domain for our student accounts
- If using a Chromebook this is the account you will use to sign in.
- Sign in to Google Meets and your Chrome browser with this account.
- Access to online Google Services: Gmail, Google Drive, Google Workspace, Google Classroom
Chrome Apps for Document Cameras
- IPEVO Presenter/Visualizer Chrome Apps
- InSwan Documate Chrome App
- IPEVO Visualizer Web App(Compatible with all IPEVO document cameras)
- InSwan Documate Web App
