Targeted phishing attacks involving Blackboard

We have received a number of reports this week of staff and students receiving emails which appear to have been sent from Blackboard, or other University services such as the Library, asking them to provide their log-in details. These emails are, in some cases, bypassing the spam filter by using addresses which appear to be from bristol.ac.uk. IT Services have been made aware of this and are looking into the matter. If you receive reports of this from students, please ask them not to provide any information – we never ask for log-in details – and to delete the emails. If you are unsure about the origin of a message, please let us know and we can advise you whether it is genuine or not. If you have any questions, please email TEL-help@bristol.ac.uk

NB: Blackboard unavailable 28 January, noon until 5pm

To ensure that we are providing the best possible service to our users, our colleagues in IT Services need to undertake some maintenance work on Blackboard.

Blackboard will not be available to users between noon and 5 pm on Wednesday the 28th January to allow this work to be completed.

If you have any questions, or critical activity (eg submission deadlines or tests requiring Blackboard) scheduled during this time, please email tel-help@bristol.ac.uk.

To help us schedule this type of work, we use the “critical dates” information provided by our users. If you have not done so already, please forward to the email address above the following information about critical activities you are running using Blackboard or Questionmark Perception:

  • date of activity
  • time of activity
  • type of activity
  • course ID
  • number of students undertaking the activity
  • contact name and phone number.

Blackboard unavailable 28th January, noon until 17:00

To ensure that we are providing the best possible service to our users, our colleagues in IT Services need to undertake some maintenance work on Blackboard.

Blackboard will not be available to users between noon and 5 pm on Wednesday the 28th January to allow this work to be completed.

If you have any questions, or critical activity (eg submission deadlines or tests requiring Blackboard) scheduled during this time, please email tel-help@bristol.ac.uk.

To help us schedule this type of work, we use the “critical dates” information provided by our users. If you have not done so already, please forward to the email address above the following information about critical activities you are running using Blackboard or Questionmark Perception:

  • date of activity
  • time of activity
  • type of activity
  • course ID
  • number of students undertaking the activity
  • contact name and phone number.

TB2 Critical Dates for Blackboard and QMP

We are currently collecting information on critical dates for Blackboard and QMP availability for TB2. Critical dates are those dates on which it is essential that Blackboard and QMP are available, for activities such as assignment submission.

Critical date information is very important to us. We use these dates to schedule downtime for essential maintenance to Blackboard and QMP, and other systems on which they depend with the least disruption to you and your students. The information also helps us and the IT Servicedesk to more effectively support students and staff in the event of an unexpected disruption to these systems or related services (such as MyBristol).

If you have not already done so, please could you send the following information about any critical dates for TB2 to tel-help@bristol.ac.uk

– date and time of activity (e.g. online submission deadline)
– type of activity (e.g. assignment submission, online exam)
– approximate number of students involved
– course names or IDs
– staff contact details
– system used e.g. Blackboard or Turnitin