Jack o' Lantern surrounded by security-themed icons

Lifting the veil on cyber resiliency: October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Security Time with David McMorries, OSU’s Chief Information Security Officer

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Welcome back to OSU, Beaver Believers!

With fall, football and fun also comes Cybersecurity Awareness Month! Every October is designated as a month to discuss and think about what it means to be cyber resilient. For the OSU community, cyber resilience is ensuring that we can perform all the important things Beavers do — teaching, learning, research, outreach and engagement — even with cyber disruptions and attacks facing us every day. Higher education is a very common target of cyber actors — we have ideas, data and people that are very compelling. For the OSU community, just understanding that there are these actors out there and how they try to attack us takes away most of their power. If you see an email or receive a phone call or text that is asking you to take immediate action, particularly if it is an unusual ask, take a second look at the message to see if it is legitimate. Check links in emails before you click. And remember that President Murthy will never ask you to go buy gift cards!

To celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we do have several events planned for October, and we encourage the OSU community to participate in as many events as you’d like!

Oct 3

The Hacking Age: Keynote with David Kennedy

7 pm // LInC 100 or Zoom

Attackers are continuously figuring out new methods to gain access to computer systems and enterprises. Everything from Ransomware to targeted and precise attacks aimed at intellectual property theft, monetary gain, or other motives. In today’s age of hacking, it’s never been more important to understand who the hackers are and the methods they use to attack organizations. In this talk, we go into the demographics of hackers, how they are hacking, and the best defenses both from a personal perspective as well as an enterprise. It’s possible to withstand the attacks we see today with proven practices, but it requires hard work, and an understanding of who your adversaries are.

Oct 6

Beaver Community Fair

noon to 4pm // MU Plaza

Come visit the Office of Information Security at the OSU Community Fair — we will have tricks and treats and free merch!

Oct 17

Information Security Town Hall

Noon to 1 pm // Zoom

The Information Security Town Hall is an opportunity for the OSU community to meet and hear from the Office of Information Security and learn about common cyber security threats that affect Beaver Nation. There will be an open question and answer session as well — come learn about what you can do to help protect our Cyber Dam and ask any burning questions you might have! Registration includes lunch.

Register