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October is Cyber Security Awareness Month
This month we are participating in Cyber Security Awareness Month. We hope our campaign helps you better understand cyber threats and the simple steps you can take to minimize your risk.
Simple things like:
- Knowing how to spot suspicious emails
- Creating secure passwords
- Keeping your computers and mobile devices safe
- Recognizing which websites may be risky
Today’s spotlight is on cyber security. Keep reading for some eye-opening stats and tips on how to stay safe online.
The Impact of Data Breaches
A data breach is when sensitive, protected or confidential data has potentially been viewed, stolen or used by an individual unauthorized to do so (source). This may result in damage to reputation and trust, and can lead to financial loss and identity theft.
- 3,605 data records are lost or stolen every minute. That’s 5,191,030 in one day.
- Trend Micro estimates that the WannaCry ransomware attack of May 2017, infected 300,000 machines around the world and caused financial and economic losses of up to $4 billion.
- Recently Yahoo reported that a data breach of 2013 affected all 3 billion users.
- The worst data breaches of 2017 (so far), include E-Sports Entertainment and Xbox, fast food chains Arby’s and Chipotle, retailers Saks Fifth Avenue and K-Mart, and Equifax.
- The Equifax data breach affected approximately 8,000 Canadians.
- Help protect yourself from data breaches is by safeguarding your password.
Password Security and Why it Matters
In our modern, digital lives, we manage numerous accounts and passwords. Passwords can be compromised in a variety of ways. We need to know how to best keep them safe.
- 80% of all cyber security attacks involve a weak or stolen password.
- More than 3 billion user credentials and passwords were stolen in 2016, with 8.2 million passwords being stolen every day (that’s about 95 every second!)
- The password manager, Keeper, used 10 million passwords leaked in data breaches to compile a list of the most popular ones. They include variations of: 1234
- 56, qwerty, password and google.
- According to Keeper, more than 50% of people use the top 25 most common passwords, with almost one in five choosing 123456.
- Use a password manager tool to create strong passwords, track them and avoid duplication.
- Keep your password safe and secure with these 5 tips.
Safeguard your Email
Email is a popular attack vector for cyber criminals who use it to send out malware and to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information.
According to the government of Canada:
- 156 million phishing emails are sent everyday
- 16 million of those (about 10%) make it through spam filters
- 8 million are opened by the end user
- 800,000 of phishing emails that are opened, lure someone into clicking on a link
- 80,000 people fall for an email scam everyday and share personal information
At Carleton we block over 85% of all inbound email as spam or viruses. Here’s how to recognize a phishing attempt.
Things We Thought you Should Know
1. Carleton Has a Security Operations Centre (SOC)
A SOC is a centralized unit that deals with security issues. And we have a brand new one in ITS! Its main functions are:
- Security incident and event management
- Campus network infrastructure monitoring, incident and work order management
- Technical support for security and network operations
2. Instructional Media Services (IMS) Knowledge Base
IMS recently released an Online Help Centre for Classroom Technology to help instructors with technology in the classrooms and around campus. Congrats on this great new resource!
3. OneDrive Cloud Storage
All Carleton staff and faculty have access to 1TB of cloud storage through OneDrive for Business. Backup your files to the cloud and easily share documents with your team…more.
4. Carleton E-commerce
If you need to accept payments for a Carleton event – conference, lecture series, workshop – check out Carleton’s E-commerce payment service. This in-house, online service is easy to use and is PCI (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliant.
5. Site Licensed Software
ITS has made special purchase arrangements for a number of software packages (such as SPSS, MatLab and Office 365). Visit the ITS site to see what is available through the site licensed software program.
6. Cyber Security Tips
Follow our cyber security campaign throughout October for tips on staying safe online.