National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an annual opportunity for folks like us to encourage folks like you to adopt a simple, three-point approach to keeping yourself and your information safe online:
STOP. THINK. CONNECT?
Paying attention to what is going on around you can go a long way toward keeping you and your data safe online.
We encourage you to STOP before automatically connecting to that open WI-FI hotspot.
Then THINK about both the name of the network you are connecting to — Is that actually the Starbucks WiFi network? — as well as the transactions you are performing over WiFi; make sure that any web transactions — especially shopping and banking — are only to secure web sites indicated by https:// in the URL instead of just http://. NEVER click through “invalid-” or “expired certificate” errors on shopping or banking or University websites.
Finally, CONNECT with caution.
In addition to the caveats above, consider using a VPN to protect your data in transit over an open WiFi network. A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between your computer and the VPN server, thus protecting your data.
Note: sslvpn.uvm.edu is available for use by any UVM affiliate.
Lynne Meeks, for the Information Security Operations Team