August News from Information Security

Welcome to the intentionally delayed August Information Security newsletter. I wanted to release this in conjunction with everyone returning to campus. First I want to welcome all our new faculty, staff and students as we begin this most interesting journey into the fall semester. I also want to welcome all the returning faculty, staff, and students who have been in various ways preparing feverishly (uh, maybe that’s not a good metaphor) striving earnestly for the start of classes.

You all have been inundated with safety information in relation to the coronavirus, COVID-19, or whatever name you want to use (I will simply use “virus” in this newsletter) to describe the virus that has upended our lives in such a profound way. I hate to be one to pile on, but in addition to the virus itself, all kinds of bad actors are afoot attempting to fool you into clicking on malicious links, submitting sensitive information, even giving up your passwords, many of them preying on the chaos caused by the virus. Please be extremely vigilant with any unexpected emails, and treat all email, at this point, with caution.

Internet criminals have no qualms about using any leverage they can to trick you. One of the latest ploys involved criminals spoofing the Small Business Administration loan relief website to try and steal information from you. Fake websites with false information about cures for the virus and government relief programs are rampant. Be very careful surfin’ the net out there.

I have some news concerning the InfoSec News and Information site (this site you are reading this article on). For the new folks (and even for returning folks who have never visited the site before), this site has a brand new look and feel. The style has moved from looking like a website from the early 2000s to now looking at least “2017ish”. I hope you like the new format and the easier navigation.

A downside to all this progress is that the transition has left the site without an events calendar, at least temporarily. I am looking for a new one and hope to get that squared away soon. Events will necessarily look a lot different for a while, but I hope to conduct some LunchITS training sessions this semester, via Zoom, of course, and I will continue to create and share new security awareness training videos. Keep checking back to see when the new events calendar shows up.

Also coming soon to the site is a “phishbowl” where you will be able to view examples of phishing emails so you can know what to look out for and also see just how desperate some people are to try and scam you. This should debut in the next week or so and will be accessible from the main page of the site.

I will, of course, continue to post warnings about phishing emails and notices about other information security topics. It will all be accessible here on the site, so bookmark it and check it regularly.

Here are some reminders (or “new information” for some of you)…

If you haven’t signed up for multi-factor authentication (MFA), what are you waiting for? This adds an additional layer of protection to your Berry account and lets you keep the same password for a whole year! Setup takes only a few minutes. Make your request by emailing computing@berry.edu to tell them you want MFA!

If I’m not covering a topic of information security you are interested in or concerned about, please let me know. I want to be your first and best resource on information security, so let me know how I can help and inform you.