The Fall 2025 semester is fully underway. Classes are in session, sports are active, and dangerous emails continue to fill our Inboxes. All of the usual cybersecurity threats are still out there, only now they are augmented by generative artificial intelligence (genAI). Of all the things that improve the ability of cyber-attackers to be more successful, genAI has moved the needle the most. Now, instead of simple emails claiming you owe money for a Geek Squad subscription, you might receive an entire email thread generated solely to convince you to hand over your money or account credentials.
It’s never been more important to be cybersecurity aware and ready for attacks, which is why we conduct cybersecurity awareness training twice a year. Our fall training period is coming soon, so be on the lookout for an email inviting you to conduct your training. We no longer have the ability to do a pre-test to opt out of training, but the training format is very different on our new platform. Rather than a series of videos, the training is presented in a short, “micro-training” format, with the curriculum hitting the essential points of each topic, requiring anywhere from one minute to about three minutes maximum per topic. We hope you are able to digest this training more effectively and move through this important process quickly this semester.
In addition to our regular twice a year training courses, you will now receive a notice if you engage in risky behavior, such as clicking a potentially malicious link, improperly sharing or storing files, creating forwarding or redirect rules in your email account, or transferring large numbers of files out of their proper storage locations. These notices will include a link to required training modules that address the risky behavior. We hope this new feature will help those who might need assistance in recognizing and avoiding these behaviors.
One particular risky behavior for faculty and staff, and even students to some degree, is the use of your Berry email for personal business and activity. You absolutely should NOT use your Berry email address to register on personal financial sites like banks, credit unions and credit monitoring services, medical and hospital portals, shopping websites, social media, or utilities like power, water, Internet, cable, or phone service. This activity should always be conducted from a personal email account.
The lone exception to this rule would be in the case of a service that is dependent on or grants a discount for registering with an educational institution email address, like your berry.edu address. Even in those cases you should have an alternate email address configured if possible and make sure you are able to access those sites even if you were to lose access to your Berry email account. This is to protect you as much as it is to protect Berry. If you currently have any of these services registered with your Berry account, please take the time to change it to use your personal email address.
Activity representing the college, such as shopping for college purchases, managing a college social media account, or other college activity with these types of websites should be done using your Berry account. The goal is making sure our personal activity doesn’t mix with work activity. If you need help with this issue or have questions about this, please let me know or contact the Technical Support Desk and ask for assistance.
LATE UPDATE: If you receive an email from “no-reply@extremecloudiq.com” with the subject “Login Credentials”, this is your EZConnect password that will allow you to connect devices to the wi-fi network that don’t have the capability to log in with a username and password. This includes a large number of “Internet of Things” devices, but you can also connect your phone or laptop using this information. Just choose the “EZConnect” wi-fi network instead of “Berry”. You’ll get the same access to the campus network. Please don’t report these emails as phishing or spam.
Finally, October is only a few weeks away! It will once again be Cybersecurity Awareness Month. We will celebrate with weekly articles covering core cybersecurity topics and another virtual scavenger hunt. Completing the hunt could win you the grand prize of a Sony Bluetooth speaker. However, if you are only able to complete part of the hunt, you could still win a cool fidget gadget just for trying. All the details you need will be in the first October newsletter.
That’s it! As always, I’m open to your questions and suggestions!
All Berry students, faculty and staff have MFA enabled on their Berry account, and you should use it in the most secure way via the Microsoft Authenticator app on your smart phone. But don’t stop there! Use the Microsoft Authenticator as your second factor on any site that supports Google Authenticator. Turn on MFA/2FA everywhere you can. Yes, it will take you another few seconds to log in, but your data and account will be safer.
Please continue to report those phishing emails! Avoid using “unsubscribe” links and report both spam and phishing via the “Report” button.
If I’m not covering a topic of cybersecurity you are interested in or concerned about, please let me know. I want to be your first and best resource on cybersecurity information, so tell me how I can help and inform you.
Check out https://support.berry.edu for more information about OIT and the services we provide. You can always check back here for warnings about current phishing emails, confirmations of valid emails you might have a question about, and data breach notifications.
Today, I present double the fun – two videos about the SpaceX Starship launch from a few days ago. First, a short video showing the launch from underneath the vehicle, showing the engines and how terrifyingly crazy it get underneath a giant rocket lifting off. Then I have a six minute video of “everything” accomplished during this test flight. It is truly monumental see a private company lead the way in space flight. I hope you enjoy the videos!
Featured Image: Photo by RUT MIIT on Unsplash
January News from Information Security
