Tag: security

Be safe on the go!

Since it is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month “When you’re traveling— whether domestic or international—it is always important to practice safe online behavior and take proactive steps to secure
Internet-enabled devices. The more we travel, the more we are at risk for cyberattacks. #BeCyberSmart and use these tips to
connect with confidence while on the go.

Security While Traveling

Some things are best left unknown

or private at least.

This article states “It’s easy to forget that convenience can also leak information about you to anyone who can touch your iPhone or iPad.”

Here are some of the tips the article offers

“Although Apple generally positions itself rightly as privacy conscious vis-a-vis the information about yourself that it allows itself and others to see, there’s no one-stop-shop for dialing up or down what appears on the lock screen. You have to visit several places in Settings:  Read more

Great Tip on Creating a Secure Passphrase

Recently from ITCS

  1. First, make up a sentence you can remember.  For example: My dog, Sylvia, has a birthday January 14.
  2. Next, take the first letter of each word and…
    1. Make 1-2 letters upper case
    2. Make at least one letter a number
    3. Make at least one letter a special character such as, ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) = +
  3. The new passphrase:  Md$habJ1 (don’t use this one!).

Hacker programs crack your passphrase by trying every word in the dictionary and other tricks.  Here are a few things to avoid:

  • Never use personal information to create a passphrase.
  • Never use the word, password, as your passphrase.  This includes using numbers or special characters to make the word look different.
  • Never use easily-obtained, personal information such as license plate numbers, telephone numbers, etc., as part of your passphrase.
  • Never use any word contained in a dictionary, spelling list or other word list in any language.
  • Never use transformations such as reversing the spelling, changing upper case to lower case or using all caps.
  • Never select a passphrase that is common to everyone (Go@Pirates!).

For more information on passphrase security, please visit www.ecu.edu/itcs/ithelpdesk/passphrase.cfm.

In case you hit delete . . .more on security

So much comes across our desks but take time and review –

Ensuring the security of your Internet sessions and sensitive information
Posted 10-17-2014 http://www.ecu.edu/cs-itcs/allnotices.cfm 

Please use the following directions to disable SSL on your Windows computers that are not installed by ITCS. This is the only way toensure the security of your encrypted Internet sessions and the sensitive information they contain.

The SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption protocol has been used for many years to establish secure connections between computers (e.g., for credit card transactions on the Internet). However, the SSL protocol no longer provides adequate protection for encrypted Internet sessions.

On the ECU campus, ITCS will disable SSL in Microsoft Internet Explorer on university-owned faculty and staff Windows computers connecting to the campus data network. However, ITCS cannot fix this condition in other browsers installed on university computers or on any browser on your home computer.

 

Safety First!

So much email we often hit delete without even reviewing.  Weekly tips from ITCS on Security are ones to be reviewed.  As they have indicated

** OCTOBER is National Cyber Security Awareness Month **

Click on this link http://www.ecu.edu/itsecurity/securityaware09.cfm for information on phishing and vishing.

If you also are working from home as many of us do you might want to check out this site http://www.staysafeonline.org/content/home-users to make sure your home computer is also protected. Read more