Mines Cybersecurity Awareness Month Email

Mines CSO,  Susan McMillin, sent an email to publicize events for Cybersecurity Awareness Month (Oct)

The below message is from Oct 6, 2021.

Subject: Welcome to Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2021!​
From: Susan McMillin (smcmillin@mines.edu)
Date:October 6, 2021

Dear Oredigger,

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month! As you have seen in the news this year, ransomware attacks have shut down universities, including nearby CU, hospitals, police departments, fuel pipelines and food suppliers.

Cyberattacks, particularly those involving ransomware, have more than tripled since the beginning of 2021. The Department of Homeland Security, White House, and FBI have all issued guidance increasing the recommended security controls needed to protect our nation’s infrastructure including Higher Education.
While ITS continues to strengthen security controls for the Mines community, criminals are increasingly attacking individuals with phishing and other social engineering that bypass some of our controls. This means individual users need to be even more vigilant to avoid letting attackers into our systems.

To highlight some of the most current risks and advise of what you can do to protect yourself and Mines, the ITS Security Team is hosting 4 lunch and learn presentations in October, each highlighting a different aspect of cybersecurity.

The presentations include:

  • Wednesday, October 6, FBI Briefing on Cyber Threats – must attend in person or live Zoom. A recording will not be available due to the sensitive information in this briefing.
  • Wednesday, October 13, Fight the Phish! – presented by our own ITS Security Operations Center analyst, Jordan Hankin. Hear about how Mines is protecting the campus from phishing attacks and what to look for to spot a phish.
  • Wednesday, October 20, Cybersecurity Careers Panel Discussion – CNN Business estimates there are 359,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the US alone and over 3 million unfilled jobs world-wide. Find out how diverse cybersecurity jobs can be and what it takes to get one- no CS degree needed.
  • Wednesday, October 27, Cybersecurity First – Every Data Custodian, System Administrator, and Developer at Mines needs to know about Cybersecurity. Join us for a look at the special knowledge you need to protect Mines in one of these key roles.

All presentations will be held in Brown Hall Room BBW210 from 12 noon to 1 p.m. They will also be broadcast on Zoom. Except for the FBI briefing, recordings will be available on the new ITS Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2021 webpage afterwards.
And as a reminder, do not be the person who lets an attacker into our network! Take your security awareness training when it is assigned and do your part to make Mines a great place to Learn, Work, Live and do Research.
Mark your calendars today. We look forward to seeing you!

Sincerely,

Susan McMillin
Chief Information Security Officer
Information and Technology Solutions (ITS)
303-384-2688 | security@mines.edu
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