WWU to send campus-wide phishing test to Bellingham faculty

Bellingham. Western Washington University's Information Technology Services will send a campus-wide phishing test to all faculty and staff later this month. The exercise is designed to help employees practice reporting suspicious messages using the Report button in Microsoft Outlook.

The initiative responds to a shift in email security threats. Criminals now use artificial intelligence to draft phishing messages that are grammatically correct, personalized, and visually polished. Traditional warning signs like typos or awkward formatting are disappearing, making these emails harder to detect.

ITS advises recipients to look for specific behavioral indicators rather than visual errors. Key signs include unexpected requests for payments or information, messages that create urgency, and links that do not match the sender's organization. Employees should also be wary of requests to sign in to unfamiliar websites or emails that seem unusual, even if they appear to come from a trusted colleague.

Unlike previous phishing simulations, the upcoming test will clearly identify itself as an exercise. Recipients will be instructed to use the Report feature in Outlook. The goal is to provide hands-on practice so that reporting becomes a quick, automatic habit. No participant will be graded or singled out for their response.

The test will arrive in the coming days. When the message appears, faculty and staff should take a moment to click the Report button. This brief action helps the IT team identify threats faster and protects individual accounts and university systems.

Additional guidance on identifying and reporting phishing messages is available on the university's IT support website. The drill aims to ensure that when a real attack arrives, employees can respond immediately without hesitation.