Thousands of new faculty, staff, and students have arrived and a new semester has begun, so it is time to remind everyone of their personal responsibility in protecting themselves online and keeping K-State information and technology safe. To quote IT security experts, “the Internet is a bad neighborhood,”* and based on the number of security incidents at K-State thus far in 2009, it’s getting worse. You can still function safely online, though, if you take the time to learn about security and “think before you click.” Here are five things you need to know about IT security at K-State:
- Never give your password to anyone in an e-mail message. K-State has been plagued by more than 200 instances of e-mail scams over the last year that try to trick people into replying with their eID password (yes, that’s nearly one per day). In fact, thus far in 2009, nearly 300 K-Staters have had their eID password stolen this way. If you remember this one simple rule, you can prevent becoming a victim of these scams: K-State IT support staff will never ask for your password in an e-mail, nor will any legitimate business or organization. If you get such an e-mail, just delete it.
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