Staff at the Australian National University (ANU) have been issued a warning after many of them received a scam email that incorrectly claimed new COVID-19 cases had been recorded at the Canberra campus.
Multiple members of departments at the university reported receiving the email, which included a link the reader was advised to follow.
The email was given the subject line “New positive positive COVID-19 cases among staffs” and was sent to faculty, including physics professor Jodie Bradbury.
“Attention ANU folks seems we have a new spam approach,” Professor Bradby wrote on Twitter.
“Just arrived in my email (Obviously I didn’t click!)”
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Professor Bradby also shared a screenshot of the email which falsely claimed that “positive positive COVID-19 cases” had been identified on Wednesday.
“These numbers are not all-inclusive,” the email said.
“For example, employees and students who are tested outside of the Australian National University process are not included.”
Other academics replied to Professor Bradbury, saying they too had received the email, and had avoided following the link.
Among them was seismologist Caroline Eakin, who described the spam as “disturbing.”
“I just received the exact same email, except it came from a valid ANU email address,” Dr Eakin tweeted.
In an email sent to staff, viewed by the ABC, the university urged people not to open or click on links contained in the email.
In 2018, the university revealed its systems had been infiltrated by Chinese hackers, sparking a months-long process to shut the attack down.
The IT breach was described by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s executive director Peter Jennings as a “really serious and unacceptable situation”.
The ANU has been contacted for comment.
