Keep IT Safe
The Office of Information Technology recently promoted Cybersecurity Awareness month at Auburn and provided great tips to protecting yourself and your information. Here are some of the helpful hints:
-Secure your handheld device – your cell phone, iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, or any other Smartphone data can be protected by simply setting a password on the device.
-Install virus detection software and keep it up to date. Anti-virus programs perform two general functions: scanning for & removing viruses in files on disks and monitoring the operation of your computer for virus-like activity. Auburn University’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) recommends that you run the latest version of Sophos AntiVirus software (available to AU students and employees via AU Install).
-Watch for phishing scams. Phishing scams are fraudulent e-mail messages appearing to come from legitimate sources like your bank, your Internet Service Provider, eBay, or PayPal. These messages may direct you to a fake web site and ask you for private information (e.g., password, credit card, or other account updates). Legitimate companies will never ask you to provide your user name, password, or bank account information in an e-mail message.
-Be careful what you share. Online communities such as Facebook and Twitter ask you for a user name, e-mail address, and password when you sign up. You may also be asked for more personal information, such as your birth date, occupation, home and work addresses, phone numbers, gender, marital status, and so on. Web sites want personal information because it helps them build community and enables them to provide advertisers with demographic information about their members, but whether to share those details is your decision.
Bottom Line: the more personal information you reveal online, the more vulnerable you are to scams, spam, and identity theft.
Visit OIT’s Cybersecurity website at http://keepitsafe.auburn.edu/ for more information. Clean and Green Day on November 20 would be a good time to follow OIT’s cybersecurity clean-up advice by changing your password settings. Learn how and why to do that at their website.
