Information Security at Union

Information security in higher education is often looked at as an oxymoron. How can we foster an open teaching and learning environment while expecting members of the community to follow rigid and archaic rules that fly in the face of being open? It turns out that information security doesn't need to be as difficult or scary as it sounds. It's not about big brother policing everything we do, it's about our community working together to ensure a more stable environment for everyone. Information security is just a newer concept than physical security and so it seems more confusing. However, just as you wouldn't leave your door unlocked, your jewelry out in a common area or go speeding through campus too fast, you also shouldn't give out your password, leave grade spreadsheets out on printers or forget to keep your computer up-to-date with patches and virus scanning.

But, this a new area that many are unfamiliar with and ITS is here to help! This site will serve as a resource for anyone looking to learn more about security and privacy in the digital world. This site is just a starting point though! If you have questions beyond what is here and would like to know more, contact the ITS Help Desk at (518) 388-6400 or email us at helpdesk@union.edu.

Information Technology Services (ITS) will be offering IT Security Awareness Training through LinkedIn Learning. We have selected the course, Cybersecurity at Work, that is focused on helping you learn about the most common cybersecurity threats that affect the modern workplace and discover what you can do about them.

Employees remain the weakest cybersecurity link. As security attacks become more sophisticated, we need every member of the Union College community to play a role in enhancing security.

ITS is strongly encouraging you to take this course. The Cybersecurity at Work Training course will help you learn about

• Protecting sensitive information in your physical office
• Avoiding malware attacks
• Social engineering attacks, such as voice phishing
• Avoiding security attacks on smartphones
• Identifying different types of email scams
• Best practices for working with both public and home Wi-Fi
• The benefits of using VPN
• Creating strong passwords
• Protecting company and employee information

This LinkedIn Learning course is 55 minutes long, but is broken up into smaller modules with each video being 1 - 4 minutes in length. You do not need to finish this all in one sitting - if you want to watch it over time, it will keep track of where you left off.

To get started, click the link below (or copy the link and paste into your browser):

https://www.linkedin.com/learning-login/share?account=68600178&forceAccount=true&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Elinkedin%2Ecom%2Flearning%2Fpaths%2Funion-college-security-awareness-training%3FshareId=57488f08-4d80-4ee0-9618-6712813330e2

• February 25, 2019 - Scammers go after international students’ money
• January 17, 2019 - 'Collection 1' breach exposes 773M unique emails, 21M passwords

• Security Awareness Tip of the Day
• Security Glossary