Acquire the Skills of Digital Self-Defense

National Cyber Security Awareness Month has come to a close but the need to stay vigilant never ends. ISG hopes our efforts have helped you feel "cyber smarter" and made safe computing habits second nature.

Though the month has ended, we'll continue to offer periodic Brown Bags and classes announced in Morning Mail.

Finally, congratulations to all the contest winners as well as everyone who participated in our events and online!

Learn how to defend yourself. During National Cyber Security Awareness Month this October, the Information Security Group (ISG) presented an important message each week, inviting you to read up on cyber as well as physical threats and what you can do to protect yourself.

Do you know where your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is? On your computer's hard drive, perhaps, but exactly where? What about online? Whether eBay, Facebook, Flickr, a friends blog, gaming sites and hosts of others, you need to be aware of what you may be sharing and with whom.

And if you work with Brown's information, it must be properly safeguarded to protect the individuals whose information is being processed, as well as those who handle it. If the content is regulated by state or federal laws, disclosure to unauthorized parties could have legal and/or financial repercussions as well.

» LEARN ONLINE: Brown's Guidelines for Safeguarding Information | Checklist for Protecting Information
» CLASS: Register for the "Know Your Stuff: You and PII" Brown Bag on Oct 5
» TOOLS: Test your password's strength (Note: Microsoft site; password is checked and validated on your computer, but is not sent over the Internet)
» GAMES: See if you can stop the techie spy - play The Case of the Cyber Criminal | Discover how savvy you are when making friends online - play Friend Finder
» VIDEOS: View the 30 second videos Back Up Your Box and 10 Most Common Passwords *
» CONTEST QUIZ WINNER: Katie Heflin, a Bio-Med graduate student, was the winner of this week's prize, the book No Tech Hacking: A Guide to Social Engineering, Dumpster Diving, and Shoulder Surfing by Johnny Long. Congratulations, Katie!

Botnets, malware, rootkits, keyloggers ... There are some nasty surprises lurking online or arriving in your mailbox. If you aren't adequately prepared, your computer could be commandeered and become part of a botnet.

Falling for a phishing attempt could mean a stolen identity. ID theft could take years to recover from, may mean the loss of job or housing opportunities, and could cost you considerable dollars to repair the damage that's been done. Save yourself the unneeded pain; learn how to take some simple steps to prevent ID Theft.

» LEARN ONLINE: Spyware: A Primer | Cleaning an Infected Computer | Phishing: How Not To Get Hooked | Botnet 101: Don't Get Own3d!
» CLASS: Register for the "Wise Up: Sharpening Your Virtual Street Smarts" Brown Bag on Oct 19
» TOOLS: CIS-recommended Anti-Malware products | Malwarebytes (anti-malware) | Spyware Blaster | RUBotted (monitor for potential infection and suspicious bot-like activities)
» GAMES: Three ways to test your "virtual street smarts" - Beware Spyware | Phishing Scams: Avoid the Bait | Spam, Scam Slam: Don't Be Fooled!
» VIDEOS: View 30 second award-winning videos Icon Ninjas and the short video Cyber Safety Tutorial with Cybersecurity Sam *
» CONTEST QUIZ: Bonnie Min, class of 2010, was the winner of this week's prize, the book Stopping Identity Theft: 10 Easy Steps to Security by Scott Mitic. Congratulations, Bonnie!

» LEARN ONLINE: Secure Wireless When Traveling | Secure Wireless at Home | Viral Wireless Networks (SSIDs / ad-hoc wireless networks that sneak onto your laptop) | www.wi-fi.org (general wireless info)
» CLASS: Register for the "Making Connections: Secure Wireless at Home & On-the-Go" Brown Bag on Oct 27
» TOOLS: Install Brown's VPN Client (documentation) | Use Brown-Secure Wireless when on campus | Check your SSID exposure with wigle.net | Perfect Passwords (ultra high security password generator)
» GAME: Stop the hack attack - play Invasion of the Wireless Hackers
» VIDEOS: View the short videos z-Bay and When You Least Expect It *
» CONTEST QUIZ: Ahalya_Nirmalan, class of 2010, was the winner of The Book of Wireless: A Painless Guide to WiFi and Broadband Wireless by John Ross.  Congratulations, Ahalya.