In the aftermath of recent cyber security breaches in large companies such as Ashley Madison and Sony Corporation, University students should remain vigilant in protecting personal information online.
Emails, phone calls, applications, web browsers and social media continually chip away at an individual’s cyber security if not kept in check. The easiest ways students can protect personal information is to watch what they put online, University IT Communications and Planning Officer Sheri J. Thompson and University Chief IT Security and Policy Officer Craig M. Callender said.
“The truth is that no one side or anything is ever truly secure,” Callender said. “So there almost has to be an expectation at this time that your information could be compromised. Even the major banks are being compromised. You have to be diligent by understanding where you are sharing your files, and the U.S. is slowly becoming more concerned with privacy. The European Union is much more advanced than the U.S. is, but we are slowly putting restrictions on how companies can share information between each other.”
Callender and Thompson recalled several phishing scams targeting University students within the past couple of years. The LSU GROK Knowledge Base contains a list of precautions students should take when dealing with emails.
According to the article “Check It Before You Click It,” students should treat all links within emails as suspicious, only log in with an LSU PAWS ID on official lsu.edu websites and never provide a password or other sensitive information within an email.
Thompson said when students receive an unexpected email from a friend, they should pick up the phone, call that person and confirm they sent an email because sometimes just by clicking on a phishing email a device may be compromised.
Thompson also said students should check the links to make sure they go to a legitimate website by hovering over the link when using a computer or holding down the link on an iOS device.
While phishing scams continue to increase and threaten individuals’ personal information, a lack of awareness and care can create security problems for students. Thompson and Callender stress that when students make passwords, they focus on password length.
“Passphrase is what the mindset should be about,” Callender said. “It is much more secure to have a longer password rather than a very short, chopped up, six digit, complicated password. The length is really what makes it secure.”
Even with a lengthy password, Thompson said students are still at risk if they use unfamiliar devices or certain public wireless networks.
“LSU has a secure wireless environment,” Thompson said. “We are on eduroam so you have authentication that has to happen, but think about when you are off campus at an apartment on an open wireless network that isn’t secure, and you want to check your bank account or you’re at a hotel and want to check your bank account. Those are places where you really want to think about what credentials you are putting out there that can be sniffed and shared with.”
Callender and Thompson said their advice to students for protecting their information is all about awareness. The two IT officers said students must make certain to update their devices to the newest version so that the device receives the necessary security patches, use spyware and antivirus technology, lock all devices with passcode or biometric encryptions and never send out personal information through email.
You can reach Justin DiCharia on Twitter @JDiCharia.