Happy Cybersecurity Awareness Month SUNY Cobleskill,
To celebrate and spread awareness in light of cybersecurity awareness month, Information Security will be releasing topics each week to discuss and spread awareness on topics that benefit your personal and educational/workspace.
Also, just a friendly reminder that all employees are required to complete the Knowbe4 security training. This was assigned August 23rd and is due November 15th. If you have any issues with the training material, please do not hesitate to reach out to itscybersecurity@cobleskill.edu.
This week will be focusing on the following main topics:
- Enabling multi-factor authentication
- Using strong passwords and a password manager
- Updating software
- Recognizing and reporting phishing
Attached will be pdfs that will explain in further detail the above points, these are coming directly from CISA which stands for "Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency", this is a government agency that aims to spread awareness regarding cyberthreats.
For those who would like a quick summary please see the bullet points below:
• Ensuring your password is long, unique for each account, and hard to guess is the easiest way to protect your account from unauthorized access. With a combination of a password manager like KeePass, you only have to memorize a master password to manage all the passwords you have. With that being said your master password should at minimum be 25 characters.
• MFA should be applied to accounts that have the ability to do so. MFA acts as another layer of defense against unauthorized access even if your password has been compromised.
• Updating your software is one way to protect your devices and applications from hackers abusing vulnerabilities. When your software gets updated most of the time these updates are security fixes that address unintended weaknesses in the software that can be used with malicious intent.
• Always be on the lookout for phishing, whenever you are urged to click a link, download an attachment, or contact a number please report it as most likely it is a scam to gather personal information from you.
Feel free to access CISA and NIST for further information regarding Cybersecurity Awareness Month and more.
CISA: https://www.cisa.gov/secure-our-world
NIST: https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity/cybersecurity-awareness-month
If you notice any suspicious emails, account activity, or cybersecurity-related issues/incidents/concerns please do not hesitate to reach out to "itscybersecurity@cobleskill.edu" via email or Andy Falcon via cell at 518-255-5831.
Thank you for always keeping vigilant for any suspicious activity.