As you are probably quite aware, October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month! I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you how important you are to the safety of NYU and its community. Universities have been, and continue to be targets. We create loads of intellectual property, much of which is valuable to others. Even though we will eventually share this research with the world, getting credit is very important to the people who have done the work. NYU is one of the largest universities in the world. Identities can be turned into cash and we have lots (too many but that is another story) that we need to protect. Billions of dollars flow through our IT systems and no self-respecting criminal will pass that up given the chance.
You are the first line of defense. You configure and maintain our systems. Unpatched systems are one of the most common ways our adversaries get into our systems. The most common is compromised accounts. As IT professionals your credentials are the most valuable! So keep up with the basics, patch your systems, turn off unneeded services, etc. Be suspicious. Think before you click. Use good password hygiene and don’t fall for a scam.
We’ve got a great webpage on cybersecurity. Check it out and encourage others to do so.