Well…summer finally got here, along with the temperatures to match. We knew it was coming, but it is always a bit overwhelming when it does. Welcome to July and to the July newsletter. This is the “broken record” edition of the newsletter, where I attempt to remind those who have read previous newsletters and educate those who are reading this information for the first time. I also have some information for those who were “unable” to complete both the fall 2025 and the spring 2026 cybersecurity awareness training.
First, let’s deal with the “broken record” topic. This is a reminder that you (particularly faculty and staff, but students also) should not use your Berry email account for sensitive financial transactions like buying and selling property or establishing lease agreements. These generally involve document signing requests that can easily get caught in our email filters, potentially causing you to miss out on an opportunity or drop the ball in a time-limited property transaction. You also should not be using your Berry account to handle household necessities like electrical or water service, exterminators, home or auto insurance, or Internet access. Using your Berry account for personal financial activity, like bank accounts and credit cards is also bad idea. Finally, you should not use your Berry account for medical, prescription and insurance activity, as these types of emails also tend to get caught in our filters and could cause you to miss an appointment or deadline. Use your personal email address for all these things, and if you don’t have one, get one and start the process of transferring all of these activities to it. Lifewire has a good article on the best free email services for 2026.
That’s a lot of “don’ts”. Let’s move on to discussing a “do”. You really, really should take the time to complete your cybersecurity awareness training. For those faculty or staff who could not or did not find the time to complete the cybersecurity awareness training for either the fall or spring semester this academic year, you will soon start to notice that you will be asked to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) more frequently. This is a “stick” – an attempt to persuade you to complete training when it is offered. Once the MFA requirement frequency increases, you will be able to complete a supplemental cybersecurity awareness training course that will remove the imposition on your login process. If you are among the few who are affected by this “stick”, you will receive an email explaining how to complete the course to remove the restriction. On a positive note, the number of people who will be affected by this is very small (you could count them using just your fingers and toes).
Cybersecurity awareness training is no longer optional for any company or institution. The threats are growing. Attackers are getting faster and more aggressive, being aided by artificial intelligence (AI) to help them attack faster, with more precision and skill and on a larger scale. Complete your cybersecurity awareness training – it is important. Users who are successfully attacked AND who did not complete cybersecurity awareness training put the college is a very risky position. Cybersecurity insurers may decide to not cover an incident if this is the case. Do what is right for both you and the college and complete your training when it is offered, which is during both the fall and spring semesters – two different courses, so both are required. I will thank you profusely in advance.
That’s the newsletter. I hope you all have productive summers and are able to prepare and be ready to take on the fall semester when it inevitably arrives before we know it.
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.
Food For Thought
Have you seen one of these hoodies? Or a T-shirt with this equation on it? Did you wonder what it meant? It’s a fun math discussion about…fashion. Enjoy.
Featured Image: Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
October News from Information Security
