UVM's Information Security Operations Team answers "Why?" Why?security

Everything Old Is New, Again

UVM technology leaders and staff are monitoring the news around emerging global cybersecurity threats as a result of recent sanctions against Russia. We continuously engage with partners across Higher Education and in law enforcement to improve UVM’s defensive posture. As always, though, we need your help, and “the usual advice” is now more important than …

When the Attacks Aren’t Just Cyberattacks

5 min. read ISO intern Josh Baker contributed the “protecting others by protecting ourselves” theme to this article. Others have eloquently addressed the injustice that is the ongoing Russian aggression against the people and the state of Ukraine; suffice it to say that no one deserves to be subject to physical violence, and we dearly …

The Password Is Dead: Long Live…Anything Else!

Executive Summary [read time: approx 1.5 min.] Passwords by themselves are no longer sufficient for protecting your information and UVM’s information from everyday attacks. UVM is moving to require multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect the most critical information at first, and all of the university’s online assets in the long run. This means that logging …

Visiting Questionable Websites (or, Using Your “Internet Hazmat Suit”)

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? With each phishing campaign that’s conducted against UVM’s students, faculty, and staff, the Information Security Office receives dozens of notifications from astute members of …

Physical Information Security for Everyone

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? As weird as it might seem, there are physical aspects to securing information about you: Before your data are stolen or corrupted, there’s a need …

Traveling Abroad without Making the News (Mobile Tech Edition)

Occasionally, a member of the community approaches the ISO Team to ask for our advice on traveling safely with mobile technology. While individual circumstances (including the nature of the mobile technologies/data in play, the nature of the trip, the particular destination) will dictate specifics, our general recommendations (below) will cover a lot of ground for …

Using URL Shorteners

We’ve all seen URLs shortened by bit.ly and its cousins: Unwieldy juggernauts like http://www.megaconference.us/register.qxv?event=megacon%20xxviii&wonderment=true%20enough%20for%20mom&prepop=1&campaign=225817558&api_key=3e7a67b1f9c00d601dbe reduced to tidy morsels like http://blag.foo/5Vf2. Who doesn’t enjoy that? It’s cleaner! Efficient! More user-friendly! Information security pros, that’s who. Why? Because it’s opaque. How did you know that clicking http://go.uvm.edu/9utlr (if that’s how you got here) was going to bring …

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