IA has primary responsibility for coordinating the response to serious IT security incidents. Report all serious or potentially serious IT security incidents to [email protected]. Once you’ve reported an incident, you can expect IA to keep you involved while coordinating.
J. Alex Halderman, U-M computer science and engineering, says action must be taken at the state level to secure the 2020 presidential election and quell fears regarding the legitimacy of the results.
You know about hovering over links in email with your mouse to see the destination URL before clicking. But what do you do on your smartphone or tablet where you don’t have a mouse or trackpad? Press the link and hold down till a dialog box appears.
Sol Bermann, U-M’s chief information security officer, is quoted in a recent article in “Science” magazine about legislation moving through Congress that aims to prevent foreign entities from taking unfair advantage of the traditionally open U.S. research system. Both House and Senate bills focus heavily on enhancing cybersecurity, seen as an essential tool in protecting intellectual property and… Read More »
ITS began implementing components of a greatly enhanced network security threat detection and mitigation system in late June. This approach combines cutting edge technologies, open source tools, and U-M’s MITN threat intelligence framework to provide a security solution that scales across U-M networks. It will allow ITS to: Detect and mitigate network threats across more U-M networks. Extend… Read More »
If you plan to use an internet connection to access U-M systems while off campus, you should secure your connection with a Virtual Private Network (VPN). When you use a U-M VPN, you are securely connected using a U-M network, regardless of where you are. This allows you to access U-M resources that require you to be on… Read More »
J. Alex Halderman, U-M computer science and engineering, is part of a state-wide effort to ensure election security and accuracy.
Shortened URLs, such as those from bit.ly and goo.gl, make it easy to type in a web address quickly but hard to tell where your web browser will actually take you. Before clicking a shortened URL, check for the full URL. Most URL shorteners—including those used at U-M—include a preview feature. In addition, there are several URL checkers… Read More »
Just two years after starting its bachelors in cybersecurity, UM-Dearborn is already adding a masters program. Associate Professor of Computer and Information Science Di Ma says the fall debut of the M.S. in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance is being driven by student demand and the metro region’s big growth in the field — which saw a 400-percent spike in job… Read More »
Kevin Fu, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, was awarded the inaugural IEEE Security and Privacy Test of Time Award.
Michigan Medicine employees can expect to receive simulated phishing emails from the Information Assurance department throughout the months of May and June.
Have you ever seen a pop-up on your computer or received an unsolicited call urging you to contact “tech support?” Scammers sometimes impersonate IT support staff and claim something is wrong with your computer. They offer to help fix the problem—for a fee—but instead may steal your personal information or infect your computer with malicious software. This can… Read More »
Professor J. Alex Halderman, U-M’s computer science and engineering department, has been selected as a 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. His fellowship will allow him to continue his work in “strengthening election cybersecurity with evidence-based elections.”
You have an important university email to send, but how do you craft it so it looks like the official, trustworthy, communication it is? In other words, how do you keep people from thinking it is a phish? Email users are rightfully suspicious of unsolicited email, but that can sometimes cause them to ignore or delete your important,… Read More »
U-M staff members, and a number of other IT security pros from Domino’s, and Washtenaw Community College, honed their IT security investigation skills at a March 27 Boss of the SOC (Security Operations Center) event held at U-M and sponsored by the U-M Information Assurance office and Splunk. Working in teams of four to five, participants assumed the… Read More »
Imagine not being able to log in to your U-M GMail and Calendar—or Box at U-M, Canvas, and more. That might have been a risk if an attacker had exploited a previously unknown Shibboleth vulnerability. Within minutes, the attacker could have broadly disrupted logins at U-M and across higher education. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. While doing a routine… Read More »
U-M CIO Ravi Pendse was quoted in a recent article about how new cybersecurity intelligence suggests that Chinese hackers are ramping up their efforts to steal military research secrets from U.S. universities. According to a report in “The Wall Street Journal,” Chinese hackers targeted institutions and researchers with expertise in undersea technology as part of a coordinated cybercampaign… Read More »
J. Alex Halderman, a U-M professor of computer science and engineering, testified on February 27 in front of the US House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Service and General Government, urging lawmakers to approve additional funding for election cybersecurity prior to the upcoming 2020 elections. Halderman described the need as critical, citing two years of investigation by Congress and… Read More »
IT staff tasked with securing systems can now use a customized assessment tool to help them. Information Assurance (IA) has customized the Center for Internet Security Configuration Assessment Tool (CIS-CAT) for the university.
You may not use U-M resources—computers, networks, electricity—for cryptocurrency mining. Such use violates university policy and puts U-M services and data, and your personal accounts and devices, at risk. The Responsible Use of Information Resources (SPG 601.07) policy states that U-M resources may not be used “for personal commercial purposes or for personal financial or other gain.” The… Read More »