ITS Information Assurance is excited to announce the latest from the Dissonance Event Series. You are invited to a free, on-demand screening of the documentary film TikTok, Boom. and a conversation with the filmmaker Shalini Kantayya. March 6 through March 15 – Virtual screening of TikTok, Boom.Join us for a virtual screening of TikTok, Boom. The film examines… Read More »
With Black History Month winding down and International Women’s Day around the corner, ITS Information Assurance (IA) celebrates Black women in cybersecurity. In the face of racist institutional policies and segregation laws in 1940s and 1950s America, Black women, such as Annie Briggs, Ethel Just, and the Black “code girls” of Arlington Hall, blazed trails in a field… Read More »
Data Privacy Day (Data Protection Day in the EU) is on January 28! To celebrate at U-M, ITS Information Assurance (IA) is hosting privacy events throughout February. These sessions are intended to raise awareness, promote best practices, and provoke thought and conversation on privacy topics broadly relevant to our community members and society at large. Refer to the… Read More »
As headlines and research reports reveal, cyber threats are steadily increasing across all sectors, including higher education institutions. Higher ed’s decentralized, more open IT environments create higher risks, and allow for cyberattacks that can cause entire institutions to shutdown. At U-M, we take a layered approach to IT security. In addition to network protections, and advanced endpoint protection… Read More »
At the University of Michigan, we have a commitment to respecting and protecting the privacy of our community members and guests. In the summer of 2022, the U-M Privacy Office decided to put that commitment to the test on U-M websites. ITS Information Assurance (IA) used the real-time website privacy inspection tool Blacklight to scan the top 50… Read More »
One of ITS Information Assurance’s core responsibilities is to provide guidance to the entire university community on IT security and privacy compliance best practices and help individuals protect university systems and data, as well as their own personal information. IA is always on the lookout for innovative and compelling ways to engage our students, faculty, and staff, such… Read More »
Cyber Monday is a few days away, so it’s imperative that you practice safe cyber habits during the busy shopping season. Beware of deals that seem too good to be true — often they are. Information Assurance provides tips and resources to keep you and your information safe while online.
A new attack discovered by the University of Michigan and NASA exploits a trusted network technology to create unexpected and potentially catastrophic behavior.
This year marked the 20th year that ITS Information Assurance (IA) has invited U-M students to take an online quiz to raise awareness about IT security issues and promote security and privacy best practices during October’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. All U-M students on the UM-Ann Arbor (including medical students), UM-Dearborn, and UM-Flint campuses who scored 90% or… Read More »
As part of this fall’s SUMIT series of weekly events, the Education and Engagement team of ITS Information Assurance (IA) presented on how they curate knowledge, develop training, and create awareness for U-M community members to protect themselves and the U. The team of Performance Support Analysts featured “Jen and the Matts” (Jen Wilkerson, Matt Ranville, and Matt… Read More »
A new NSF-funded project led by UM-Dearborn’s Junaid Farooq could allow the military to use commercial 5G networks without fear of getting hacked. Since the very beginning of the public conversation around 5G — the latest-generation broadband cell network boasting super fast speeds — security issues have been front and center. Most notably, back in 2019, the U.S. and… Read More »
Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has planted more than 19,000 trees on his family farm that dates back to the early 1700s. He’s also helped reboot the banking system after a Russian cyber attack on the country he was leading at the time. “The first thing you must understand is – this was a DDOS attack, servers… Read More »
We live in a world of seemingly pervasive cyberthreats. From data breaches to ransomware disrupting business operations, to cyberattacks being a part of military operations, there are cyber incidents that make the news on an almost daily basis. The Securing the University of Michigan video explores the cyberthreats we face and the actions the university takes to protect… Read More »
Spring is here, the sun is shining, and many of us are going on a long-awaited trip for vacation. Whether you are heading on a long vacation or a quick professional trip, you will likely take along some combination of a smartphone, tablet, laptop, and other mobile devices. Follow these tips to safeguard both your own and the… Read More »
Complex scams are very real and playing out at academic institutions across the country, including U-M. There are key aspects to all of these scams that you should understand in order to protect yourselves and your data from malicious actors.
April 12 is Identity Management Day. Learn about the people who protect your data by “giv[ing] the right people access to the right things at the right time.”
Dissonance, Information and Technology Services and the Wallace House invite you to participate in a complimentary viewing of the film The Feeling of Being Watched, and accompanying post-viewing discussion. Algerian-American investigative journalist, filmmaker, and Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow Assia Boundaoui, grew up outside of Chicago, in an Arab-American neighborhood where most people believed they had been under surveillance for… Read More »
Jennifer Wilkerson is a lead performance support analyst on the Information Assurance team. She promotes IT security and privacy awareness within the U-M community and her work often involves change management. She loves being outside and walking in her neighborhood as a form of self-care. She also enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her family and three dogs.
In early December 2021, the world was faced with yet another massive zero-day vulnerability, when news broke that Log4j was being used to perform remote code execution and provide unauthorized access to servers. This vulnerability was quickly exploited to do everything from crypto-currency mining to ransomware installation. Log4j is a piece of open-source software used by numerous vendors… Read More »
African Americans have served in the U.S. military since the revolutionary war, although the armed forces were not officially desegregated until 1948. Unfortunately, their service is all too often downplayed or not prominently known. One story that deserves highlighting is the cryptologic work done by William Coffee in the agency that would eventually become the NSA. Mr. Coffee… Read More »