Written by: Jeremy Shelley October 1, 2021 October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and UAH OIT is using it to reinforce our shared responsibility to keep the UAH information systems and data safe for everyone. Social Engineering Awareness Tips UAH OIT provides faculty, staff and students with powerful computing tools to advance the university mission. Protecting the university’s data is everyone's responsibility, whether you are working in your office or working remotely. Take these simple steps now to improve your online safety and security: Protect UAH information on your connected devices, UAH provides secure remote access to campus IT resources for UAH business from anywhere when needed via the UAH Pulse Secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution. Enable or expand stronger authentication. Use multifactor authentication to UAH systems where possible. UAH provides Duo for multifactor authentication for all faculty and staff. Make your passwords long and strong. While multifactor authentication (MFA) is better than just using a password, there are some sites and solutions that simply do not support MFA. In these situations, it’s better when you use unique passphrases or faux email addresses as your password. Keep your devices and apps up-to-date. Manufacturers and software developers often release patches and updates for their products, but they only work if you apply them. Stay current by enabling notifications on your computer and mobile devices to tell you when updates are waiting to install. As soon as they are available, take a few minutes and perform an update. Also, take a moment to learn about and configure the privacy and security settings of your apps and devices. Most devices default to the least secure settings. Social Engineering: Think before you click. Links in email and online posts are often how cybercriminals trick you into being compromised. If a link or attachment looks suspicious, even if you know the source, confirm before clicking! Share with care: Use social media safely. Before you share online, think about how you'd feel if that information were to end up somewhere you didn’t intend. Do you need to share this information? How could someone use this information against you? Do you think you’re savvy about Social Engineering? Take the 2021 Social Engineering Red Flags training and find out. For questions or more information, contact ciso@uah.edu
