Being Safe Online
October is a lot of things: National Book Month, National Pet Wellness Month, National Pizza Month and National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, to name just a few.
But most important of all, October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month and Cal Poly has this message for all students, faculty, staff, emeriti, and ASI and Corporation employees:
Practice Cyber Safety!
Information Security Forum - Safeguarding Your Computer
February 21, 2008 - 11:00 a.m. to 12 noon
University Union 220
Links to Previous Forum Presentations
In between enjoying pizza and popcorn, take the time before October ends to make sure you’re practicing cyber safety every time you log on to your computer - especially at home. Here are some tips for practicing cyber safety in your home or dorm:
- Cal Poly offers downloads of free virus protection AND free antispyware software for your home computers and laptops. That's right: if you are a student, faculty or staff member - or an ASI or Corporation employee, you get it all free! For more information on how to download, install and update the software on your home computer, visit the Virus and Spyware section of this website.
- If you use Windows at home or on your laptop, make sure you sign up to automatically receive and install regular Windows Security Updates from Microsoft. Not sure how to do that? Visit Microsoft Security Central for details, or call the ITS Service Desk 805.756.7000 for help.
- Take the time to visit Stay Safe Online. It’s a great Web site with a lot of information, written in plain English instead of computer-speak. Go there, click on the link to Cyber Security Basics: For Consumers. Read what’s there - it could save you a lot of grief later on.
- Take the Stay Safe Online "How Safe Are You?" quiz to see if you’re practicing cyber safety.
- Before you leave the site, check out their Top 8 Cyber Security Practices.
- Regularly visit Cal Poly's Information Security Web site for links to antivirus information, security policies and practices, current issues and laws, training materials and other resources of interest to everyone as well as campus employees and technical support staff.
Remember: Always Practice Cyber Safety! You’ll be protecting your home computer or laptop from viruses, worms and hackers. You’ll also be protecting the people you email and share files with from these threats. And, if you share files between work and home computers, or plug in your laptop at work, you’ll be protecting your Cal Poly work computer and the campus cyber community, too.
Did you know?
- Myth: 30% of computer users (40% of users under age 25) think they are more likely to get struck by lightning, get audited by the IRS, or win the lottery than become the victim of a cyber security/privacy breach?
- Reality: The odds of the first three happening to you are less than 1%, while your odds of becoming a cyber victim are 7 in 10 (70%)?
- 90% of computer users can recall the name of the controversial performer at last year’s Super Bowl half-time show, but only 60% can recall the last time they updated their computer security software?
- 70% of computer users are more aware of cyber security, but 91% of all personal computers likely contain ‘spyware’ that can send information from the computer to an unauthorized third party?
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