Welcome to Cybersecurity Awareness Month!
Since 2004, the President of the United States and Congress have declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month, time dedicated for the public and private sectors to work together to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity.
Over the years it has grown into a collaborative effort between government and industry to enhance cybersecurity awareness, encourage actions by the public to reduce online risk, and generate discussion on cyber threats on a national and global scale. October 2024 marks the 21st Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
Starting in 2023 with the launch of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA’s) cybersecurity awareness program, Secure Our World is the enduring Cybersecurity Awareness Month theme. This theme recognizes the importance of taking daily action to reduce risks when online and using connected to devices.
As this month continues, CIS will send a weekly email with information and tips on how you can protect yourself, and your family and friends while using digital technologies.
Table of Contents
Keeping your Accounts Secure - October 7, 2024
In today’s installment, we want to focus on securing your accounts. This includes keeping not only important accounts like Bank Account information secure, but also your SPU Account and any tools you use in your professional, academic, and personal life.
Password Management
You can strengthen your passwords by remembering these three tips. Long, Random and Unique.
At least 16 characters long
Random string of characters or create a memorable passphrase
Make them unique - use a different password for every account
If it’s too hard to remember all your passwords, don’t write them down. Instead, consider using a well-known and reputable password manager. That way you only have to remember one strong password.
If you haven’t changed your password in a long time, now is a great time to update your password. Follow the steps on Change Your Password.
When we choose strong passwords at SPU, we make it much harder for someone to steal not only your personal information, but our community’s information too.
Avoid Phishing Scams
Phishing scams are online messages designed to look like they’re from a trusted source. We may open what we thought was a safe email, attachment or image only to find ourselves exposed to malware or a scammer looking for our personal data. The good news is we can take precautions to protect our important data. Learn to recognize the signs and report phishing to protect devices and data.
Recognize common signs of Phishing
If an email contains any of the following, it’s likely phishing: Urgent or emotionally appealing language, requests to send personal or financial information, unexpected attachments, untrusted shortened URLs, email addresses that do not match the supposed sender, and poor writing/misspellings
Resist and Report
Report suspicious messages by using the “Report Spam” feature in your mailbox. There are even phishing messages that look like SPU. By reporting these messages, you help our mail filter detect and remove these emails before they can arrive in anyone’s email inbox.
Delete
Just delete the message. Don’t reply or click any attachment or link (this includes unsubscribe links). That unsubscribe link could also carry a link used for phishing or download malicious software. It’s best to just delete it.
Remember, if a message looks suspicious, it’s probably phishing!
Setup and Multi-Factor Authentication
Here at SPU, MFA is a requirement for your account. This is because, while it’s not a “silver bullet,” it still provides additional security and verification, such as a code sent via text message or email, or biometrics like a fingerprint or facial recognition; it helps confirm our identities when logging in.
Just because you receive a prompt or notification for approval, doesn’t mean it’s always you who is logging in. It’s still important that when you receive notifications that you check and make sure you know why you’re getting a prompt and if it’s something you expect to have happen.
Setting up MFA a.k.a. Two-Factor Authentication is a step in the right direction towards protecting yourself and those around you.
Consider turning MFA on for all email accounts, banking, social media, online shopping, and any other location where information about your identity might be stored.
We hope these tips we shared with you today help you stay safter online. Stay tuned throughout October for more ways you can stay safe in our digital world.
As a reminder, CIS will never request your password or other protected information via email.
Keeping your Computer Secure - October 14, 2024
Today we’re going to cover tips on how to keep your personal computer update to date, which is also a way to keep your data safe & secure.
Regularly Install Operating System Updates
Ensuring your device has the latest Operating System (OS) updates is important. If you’re like us, you also have a personal computer and that means you’re the person in charge of determining when and how often you update your computer. By setting your updates to install automatically, you can ensure you have the latest security patches.
Updates not only keep your device working well, but they help close security loopholes and keep you save. Click the links below to learn how to check for updates yourself and ensure you have automatic updates set up.
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/keep-your-mac-up-to-date-mchlpx1065/mac
Encrypt your Computer’s Hard Drive
Encryption is one way to ensure your data is secure and that someone can’t get to your data even if they extract the hard drive from the computer. This is the case for both Windows and Mac users, but if you want to keep your personal data secure, enabling hard drive encryption is one way you can protect yourself from unauthorized access.
Watch this video about BitLocker (Microsoft’s Encryption tool) to learn more about how it works: https://youtu.be/iX8QC2pRuYM?si=5qtlfugkpzByApRu
It’s important to ensure if you turn encryption on, that you read through all the documentation and have your encryption key backed up in a secure location. Without this key, your data may be lost.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bitlocker-overview-44c0c61c-989d-4a69-8822-b95cd49b1bbf
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/protect-data-on-your-mac-with-filevault-mh11785/mac
Keep your Software Up to Date
In addition to keeping your operating system up to date, it’s also important to ensure the software you install on your computer is also kept up to date. Often, you can do this by choosing automatic updates in the application’s menu interface, but if automatic updates aren’t available, add a quarterly reminder to your calendar or task list to check for updates.
https://www.google.com/chrome/update/
Other ways to Keep your Computer Secure
Operating systems have a variety of features that can help you keep your data safe & secure. These might be tools like Microsoft Defender, great for scanning your system for malicious software, firewall settings to prevent unwanted internet traffic and connections to your computer
Stay Protected with Windows Security
https://www.apple.com/macos/security/
https://support.apple.com/guide/security/welcome/web
Install Software from Known Vendors
It’s important to know what you’re installing on your computer and where it comes from. By default, both Mac and PC devices require installation packages to be “digitally signed” by the vendor. You can override these settings and install applications from other places, but it’s still important to properly vet your software choices, paying attention to not only if the company is reputable, but also their Terms of Use & Privacy statements.
https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/open-a-mac-app-from-an-unknown-developer-mh40616/mac
If you bought a Windows 11 PC in “S” Mode - which only allows apps from the Microsoft Store, you’ll need to switch out of “S” mode. Please note this is a One-way change. You can learn more at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-and-windows-11-in-s-mode-faq-851057d6-1ee9-b9e5-c30b-93baebeebc85
Retire Old Software & Systems
We all want to save money and often we think of computers in similar terms to the way we think about cars; use it and get as much life out of it as possible before selling it. Unfortunately, this mindset can lead to insecure systems because as the device ages, it will get to a point where the company no longer supports it or creates security patches for it. All software has a life cycle and it’s important to be aware of these, so you can know when to prepare to change software versions or upgrade to a new device with the latest operating system.
One major change that we know about, is Windows 10 coming to the end of its life cycle. As noted by Microsoft on their site: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-home-and-pro on October 14, 2025, there will be no further major releases or monthly patching. If you haven’t thought about upgrading your personal PC yet, now is a good time to start planning that process.