Archives

Report Phishing Emails

""   Overview and Key Features:

Phishing emails are fraudulent messages designed to trick you into sharing personal information, clicking malicious links, or downloading harmful attachments. Reporting suspected phishing helps protect both you and the wider university community.

The University provides two ways to report phishing:

    • A dedicated email address for reporting suspicious messages
    • A U of T Report Phishing button in Outlook (when available)

Both methods send the message to the same security team for review.

""   Getting Started:

If you receive a suspicious email:

    • Do not interact with the message.
    • Don’t click links
    • Don’t open attachments
    • Don’t reply to the sender

Report the email using one of the options below:

Option 1: Use the Outlook “U of T Report Phishing” button

    • Available in Outlook on the web and most desktop versions
    • Select the email, then choose U of T Report Phishing from the toolbar
    • The message is submitted automatically and can then be deleted

Outlook toolbar with the UofT Report Phishing button located at the right-hand side highlighted.

Option 2: Forward the email to the phishing mailbox

Note: If the Outlook reporting button is temporarily unavailable, forwarding the email is the correct and supported alternative.

If you already clicked a link or opened an attachment:

    • Contact your local IT support as soon as possible
    • Acting quickly helps limit potential impact

Help - Free computer icons   Get Help:

Event Registration and Management System (EVE)

""   Overview and Key Features:

EVE (Event Registration and Management System) is a one-stop platform for managing events, workshops, conferences, and meetings hosted at the University of Toronto. It supports in-person, online, and hybrid event types and provides end-to-end management from registration setup to post-event surveys.

Key Features:

  • Create and manage event registration pages for U of T audiences or the general public.
  • Customize registration forms, confirmation messages, and attendee communications.
  • Track registrations, attendance, and event metrics through built-in reporting tools.
  • Publish events on your divisional or departmental subdomain.
  • Supports both single departmental (Op Unit) and divisional configurations, depending on your needs.

Operated by the Web Services team (EASI Division), EVE is available for administrative use across the university.

""   Getting Started:

Visit https://help.eve.utoronto.ca for setup instructions, FAQs, and training materials.

Departments and divisions interested in trying EVE can request access to a free trial instance before full deployment.

""   Get Help:

For assistance or to request access, contact the Web Services team at webservices@utoronto.ca.

URL Shortening Service (UofT.me)

""  Overview and Key Features:

UofT.me is a U of T branded URL shortening service that lets you create short, memorable links for official university web pages. Instead of sharing long or complex URLs, users can generate a concise UofT.me link that’s easy to type, remember, and share.

Key Features:

  • Create short, professional U of T–branded links instantly (No sign-in required).
  • Works across select U of T domains to ensure authenticity and consistency.
  • Ideal for email campaigns, social media, and printed materials.
  • Maintains university identity while improving usability and link readability.
  • Managed and supported by the Web Services team (EASI Division) for administrative use.

""  Getting Started:

  1. Visit https://uoft.me.
  2. Enter the long U of T URL you’d like to shorten.
  3. Choose a custom keyword (optional) to personalize your shortlink.
  4. Click Shorten URL to instantly generate your UofT.me link.

You can now share the shortened link in emails, websites, or marketing materials.

Question mark - Free communications icons   Get Help:

For assistance or feedback, please contact the Web Services team at webservices@utoronto.ca.

Risk Guidance and General Inquiries

"" Overview and Key Features:

The Information Risk team is available to provide guidance and answer general inquiries about information security risk management. This service can help to enable units and divisions to manage their exposure to risks and make risk-informed decisions.

""  Getting Started:

To access this service, please submit a ESC ticket.

""   Get Help:

All questions about risk are welcome. If you have a question or you’re unsure whether something is an information security risk, please reach out to Kanupriya Kejriwal, Manager, Risk Management at kanupriya.kejriwal@utoronto.ca.

Research Cyber Security Training

"" Overview and Key Features:

Research cyber security training aims to:

  • Equip research teams with cyber security best practices
  • Offer discipline- and solution-specific training
  • Address cyber security questions related to research, roles and solutions
  • Fulfill training requirements for specific applications and agreements

Through researcher-focused cyber security training, teams will gain a general understanding of how to better secure their research projects. Training is delivered synchronously, either virtually or in person.

""  Getting Started:

Connect with the Research Information Security Program team via Enterprise Service Centre (ESC) to safeguard research knowledge, intellectual property and data.

""   Get Help:

Contact the Research Information Security Program team: research.infosec@utoronto.ca.

Preferred name (display first name)

"" Overview and Key Features:

Members of the University of Toronto community often have a first name other than an official name that they use to identify themselves to others. Recognizing this, U of T allows students, faculty and staff to set and use their preferred first name.

Differentiating between the preferred and official first names allows the University to enable individual preference in applications that do not have a requirement to use official names. The preferred name option enacts the adoption of a consolidated preferred name across the University’s IT infrastructure.

The preferred name service was previously known as display first name.

""  Getting Started:

Access the preferred name service.

  • How to use:

To change your preferred name, log in to the preferred name service page and follow the prompts.

  • Application owners:

If you’re an application owner, learn how to consume preferred name information from Shibboleth.

""   Get Help:

Questions about selecting a preferred name

Students should contact their registrar’s office and employees should contact their divisional human resources office.

Forensic services

"" Overview and Key Features:

The Incident Response team offers digital forensic services for malicious computer activity. This service also facilitates access to third-party services if information security incidents need a more detailed analysis of changes made by malicious actors.

""  Getting Started:

Forensic services are provided for reported information security incidents. If you are experiencing an incident and you have not reported it, please follow the steps below.

  • Low severity incidents:

For low severity incidents, such as a compromised account or clicking a link in a phishing email, contact security.response@utoronto.ca.

  • Medium to critical severity incidents:

For information about medium to critical severity incidents, refer to the Incident Response Plan. If you are experiencing a medium to critical severity incident, complete the incident intake form.

""   Get Help:

If forensic services work is not already happening as part of a reported security incident, contact security.response@utoronto.ca.

AI-Assisted Productivity Tools

""  Overview and Key Features:

With Microsoft Copilot Chat, you can ask the AI chatbot questions and get detailed responses with footnotes that link back to original sources. Because it is connected to Microsoft’s search engine, it can provide users with up-to-date information and real links, which may make it a better research and teaching tool than ChatGPT.

The Microsoft Copilot service is currently available to the public, but the public version does not have full privacy and data protections; instead, the University has access to an enterprise edition, which does conform to the University’s usual privacy and data protections. This document describes how Faculty, students and staff (with access to the Microsoft toolkit) can access this protected version of Copilot.

Key Features:

  • Uses web search and will provide links to the sources of information it quotes/finds.
  • Your chat data is not used to train models. The data is not available to Microsoft.
  • Copilot cannot access your other Microsoft 365 data.  It does not work on Outlook email, Teams messages, SharePoint files, etc.
  • You can upload a local pdf file or document file and ask contextual questions, for example, “Make 10 quiz questions based on chapter 3 of this pdf”.

 

""  Getting Started:

You can access Microsoft Copilot Chat by navigating to m365.cloud.microsoft/chat and follow the prompts to login to your University of Toronto Microsoft 365 account.

Your interactions with the AI-powered chat tool will not be in the protected environment if you do not sign in with your University of Toronto account.

Alumni Email

""   Overview and Key Features:

The Alumni email service provides a personalized email address ending in @alumni.utoronto.ca, along with access to calendar and contact tools. It is hosted on the Microsoft platform and is designed to offer continued connection with the University of Toronto community after graduation.

Key features include:

  • Microsoft Outlook web access

  • Calendar and contact syncing

  • Support for desktop and mobile apps

"" Getting Started:

To access your alumni email account, log in using your full alumni email address and password at https://alumnimail.utoronto.ca.

You can also configure your account on supported desktop clients (like Outlook or Mac Mail) or mobile email apps. Instructions for setup are available in the Knowledge Base linked below.

"" Get Help:

If you’re looking to get started or have any questions or concerns, we recommend beginning by reviewing the relevant resources:

 

Research Data Management Platform (REDCap)

""   Overview and Key Features:

REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a free and secure data-management web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. While REDCap can be used to collect virtually any type of data, it is specifically geared to support online or offline data capture for research studies and operations.

For a comprehensive list of REDCap features, visit: https://projectredcap.org/software/

 

Help - Free computer icons    Getting Started:

To be eligible for a REDCap user account at the University of Toronto individuals must have:

  • A valid University of Toronto UTORid
  • Receive approval through their division/department
  • UTORmfa

Divisional Approval

The University of Toronto is rolling REDCap on a per-division/department basis. The criteria for eligibility are determined by appointed divisional and/or departmental leadership. Persons wishing to request a REDCap account should complete the onboarding form.

 

Question mark - Free communications icons   Get Help:

This REDCap resource webpage contains the relevant training and resources that will help you get started with the REDCap. Faculty members, staff, and students can access this webpage using the link  https://cris.utoronto.ca/redcap-resources/

Support Contact: redcap@utoronto.ca