CISO Update #27: August 2020

Working Safely From Home

Welcome back! We hope you all had a safe and enjoyable summer. FIT’s plan for reopening in fall 2020, which prioritizes the health and safety of the FIT community, includes the online safety of FIT digital information, data, and resources.

This is the second of our monthly campuswide information security updates. There are many aspects to information security, and over time we’ll cover lots of them. But, during this period in which most of us will be working, teaching, and learning remotely, the next few updates will focus on things you can do to keep home networks (and FIT’s information) more secure. Here are a few, and we’ll cover more in the coming months.

• Secure your Google account: When the wrong person gains access to your email account they can wreak havoc on your life. With two-step verification turned on, you will need to take “two steps” to log in to your FIT Gmail account. Two-step verification can help keep bad guys out, even if they have your password, and during this pandemic, attackers are working overtime devising phishing scams designed to steal user credentials. Learn how to enable two-step verification.

• Install anti-virus software: Make sure you have an antivirus program working on your personal computers and that it’s set to update automatically. New viruses are released every hour, so it’s important for your protections to be current. Paid antivirus software is usually more sophisticated than the free versions, and often if you have more than one computer at home, you can protect them all for one price. If you don’t want to pay for antivirus software, you can download Sophos home edition for free. Note that if you’re a VPN user, you will not be able to connect if you don’t have antivirus or if its virus updates are older than seven days.

There are lots more tips available on the Cybersafe website, and we’ll cover many of them over the next few months.

 Stay aware, and stay cybersafe!