McMaster takes part in National Cyber Security Awareness Month 

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October is National Cyber Security Month, and for the sixth year, McMaster’s Technology Security and Risk team are participating in this event that has been taking place for the last 14 years.

National Cyber Security Awareness Month was created in 2004 as a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security & the National Cyber Security Alliance. The campaign was developed to raise awareness about cyber security and to help foster a safer place for all online.

Information Security isn’t just the job of the IT department. Each one of us plays a critical role in helping to keep the McMaster community safe from threats online. This can be as easy as reporting a suspicious message, keeping your system updated or creating strong and unique passwords for your MacID.  Many of our jobs require access to resources on the Internet, and anyone with accessing the Internet from our network is a potential point of vulnerability. Cyber criminals are becoming ever more advanced, and we must be vigilant to protect our data and systems from cyber threats.

As recent major cybersecurity incidents have shown, cyber criminals often rely on human error such as clicking on malicious links or creating weak passwords to gain access to systems and private information. Phishing has become the number one attack vector for stealing credentials and infecting systems. The Technology Security and Risk team have an inbox setup for reporting suspicious messages to. Each message is analyzed to determine it’s legitimacy and associated threat. Send messages that don’t look quite right to is-spam@mcmaster.ca

Keep an eye out for our posters and TV campaign around campus and follow us on social media where we will be sharing tips, alerting followers to spam targeting our community, and offering information on cyber-security throughout the year.

For more information about National Cyber Awareness Month, visit the Stay Safe Online website: https://staysafeonline.org/ncsam

Visit the McMaster University Information Security website for important information related to online threats and to see how we are working to protect the McMaster University community: https://informationsecurity.mcmaster.ca/

Social Media

Twitter: https://twitter.com/McMaster_ITSec

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcmaster_itsec/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mcmaster.itsec/

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