Cybersecurity Awareness
Cybersecurity awareness is important to the University. Our institution stores sensitive data from research to student applications, making it a target for cyber threats. Fostering cybersecurity awareness among students, faculty, and staff is an essential pa of our shared responsibility to protect our network against evolving threats.
The very nature of the internet, the global network of interconnected computers and networks, allows us to reach services like UWinsite Student and the learning management system from electronic devices from almost anywhere. Unfortunately, the internet can also provide access to others with bad intentions to connect to our stored data.
A Hostile Internet
With cybercrime now the world's third-largest economy estimated at three trillion dollars in 20231, the internet is a hostile environment that allows criminals to automate attacks on their victims. These attacks include trying to break into school and work accounts to find vulnerabilities and weaknesses to exploit. The front line of defence for the campus against these attacks is a firewall. A firewall allows desired connections and drops undesired or suspect traffic.
The graph above shows an example of how our firewall drops over 96% of connections from the Internet as they are invalid or prohibited connection attempts.
Multiple Threat Vectors
The security of campus information and computing resources is regularly threatened by a variety of factors using many techniques and attacks, such as:
- Phishing and spear-phishing attacks
- Malware and ransomware
- Compromised accounts
- Malicious mobile apps
- Theft and loss of equipment
The important thing to know is that there is a mature, organized cybercrime industry seeking access, information and resources. The educational services industry now accounts for over 30% of cyber attacks2. Computer users on campus need to stay aware and report anything unusual to IT Services so it can be checked.
Phishing and Spam
Email is a critical communication tool, and it can be abused. Everyone has seen spam emails and phishing attempts in their inboxes. What most campus email account holders don't see are the spam and phishing attempts that don't reach their inboxes. The campus has multiple anti-spam systems in place that stop the vast majority of unwanted email before it even reaches the recipient.
A significant portion of the emails during the week of August 31, 2023 were delivered to junk or blocked.
We're here to help!
IT Services is happy to answer questions about cybersecurity on campus by calling ext. 4440 or opening a ticket. Keep reading information on uwindsor.ca/cybersecurity to stay cyber-safe.
Sources
1 Cybercrime is the world’s third-largest economy thanks to booming black market | Cybernews
2 2022-data-breach-investigations-report-dbir.pdf (verizon.com)