Author: Dan Boyd

It’s here…December has arrived, complete with cooler weather, the end of the semester (including finals), the holidays approaching and even more phishing emails. While a discussion of the kinds of emails we’ve received would be useful, and comical at times, that’s not the topic of this month’s newsletter. We’ve all(?) been working to complete the required cybersecurity awareness training since August, and while we have a considerable number of completions, there is definitely room for improvement.

Is it already November? Absolutely, it is, and I know everyone is welcoming the fall weather and the approaching end of classes. We just had a super October celebrating Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Thank you to everyone who read the weekly articles, participated in the virtual scavenger hunt, and completed their cybersecurity awareness training. We’ll recap Cybersecurity Awareness Month first, then get to November news.

This week we will briefly discuss the necessity of updating your software. Whether that means restarting your browser periodically to allow it to update, or allowing your smart phone to automatically install updates, or restarting your desktop or laptop to let updates run, updating your software is important.

So far this October we have talked about passwords and password managers, and multi-factor authentication. This week we will discuss the plague of phishing emails, and social engineering in general. What is social engineering?

Ha! No, the title is not some patriotic chant or crude taunt. Is is a cheer for multi-factor authentication, one of most powerful tools in our arsenal to combat cyber attackers and it is the subject of this week’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month article.

It’s here again! In addition to exciting athletics, Mountain Day, and cooler temperatures, October brings us Cybersecurity Awareness Month! A whole month celebrating and emphasizing cybersecurity awareness?! A security professional’s dream! But you should be excited also, as Cybersecurity Awareness Month brings us another round of virtual scavenger hunting and winning cool prizes.

It is WAY past time for the September newsletter. My apologies for the tardiness of this post, but things have been busy. The timing of this newsletter is actually a bit fortuitous because of all the activity here in the Information Security department as we gear up for Cybersecurity Awareness Month which is….next month! Yes, October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month.