October marks the 10th anniversary of National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), a program designed to raise awareness of online and internet security, sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. Here at Syracuse University, Information Technology and Services (ITS) will champion this cause with a workshop, an online IT Security employee training program and a series of promotional events and informational articles throughout the month.
“People are the favorite target of hackers when it comes to cyber security’” says SU’s Director of Information Security, Chris Croad. “Given proper training and awareness, our people can become our strongest line of defense.”
ITS’s Information Security group will reach out to faculty, staff and students first with “Securing the Human,” a series of short videos each featuring a different IT security topic. Mid-month will see the staging of “Flying Phish” encounters in several high-traffic areas around campus. The centerpiece event will be a live workshop on Oct. 29 presented by Croad and his staff, featuring hands-on demonstrations of security threats and ways each member of the SU community can counter them. Weekly articles about specific IT security topics will be published in campus media.
According to Chris Sedore, SU’s associate vice chancellor for academic operations and chief information officer, “It is important for all of us to work together in order to protect not only SU’s resources, but our personal data, devices and online identities. Our campus-wide observance of National Cyber Security Month calls attention to the importance of our actions in keeping personal and University data safe and secure.”
For more information about NCSAM and IT security at SU visit http://securecuse.syr.edu.
