October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month! BGSU Information Technology Services (ITS) is excited to announce our participation in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) annual campaign where together, we can Secure the Next 250 online, at work, and at home by taking a few basic steps.

Throughout the month we will share tips on how to stay cyber safe online, at work and at home via Campus Update, Our BGSU and social media posts. This information will focus on these 3Rs of Cybersecurity: Reduce, Replace, Report.

1. Reduce vulnerabilities
2. Replace end-of-support devices
3. Report suspicious messages

• Keep devices up to date: Regularly update and patch your computer’s operating system, software, and system firmware. Updates often include important security fixes that help protect against newly discovered threats.
• Protect Your Devices: Use reputable antivirus and antimalware solutions from authorized sources, and keep them up to date.
• Use reputable software: Only download and install software from authorized, reputable sources. Avoid unfamiliar websites, unauthorized downloads, or software from unknown sources.
• Protect your accounts: Use strong, unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) whenever available.

  • Don’t overlook accounts that may seem low-risk, such as social media and email. If compromised, these accounts can be difficult to recover or may be used to damage your reputation. Compromised email accounts can also allow attackers to reset passwords and gain access to other accounts.

• Back up important data: Regularly back up important files, photos, and other data.
  • A system failure, data corruption, or accidental deletion can happen at any time. Having a current backup can make recovery much easier.

CISA RESOURCES

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• Replace unsupported devices as soon as possible to help keep your information and systems protected.
• Unpatched and unsupported devices are more susceptible to attack as new vulnerabilities and attack techniques are discovered and shared online.

CISA RESOURCES

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Phishing attempts are becoming more prevalent as hackers become better at disguising their messages and links. These attempts to access your personal information could come in the form of an email, text message or even a phone call. It may look/sound legitimate and seem to come from your email service, friend or coworker but seems a little off. Perhaps the timing of the message is out of place, it’s littered with mistakes or just seems suspicious. This is likely a phishing scheme, many of which are disguised in the form of a clickable link/URL in an email that looks like it will take you to a specific or familiar destination, but in reality, it does not. Typically, these links are configured to do one of the following:

• Take the user to a malicious webpage that attempts to install malware on the user's computer. The malware can do anything from retrieving the user's password to encrypting or stealing data from the user's device.
• Redirect the user to a fraudulent login page where the user enters their username and password under the impression that they are logging in to a legitimate website. From this page, hackers can access the user's password which can then be used to log in and access protected services.

Always be cautious before you click on any link, and if a message seems suspicious report it to ITS by following these instructions:

CISA RESOURCES

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