/news-archive/tag/internet-safety-month/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Fri, 24 Jun 2022 13:39:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2022/06/24/internet-safety-tips/ Fri, 24 Jun 2022 13:39:02 +0000 /news/?p=81744 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Chief Information Officer Provides Tips on How to Stay Safe Online]]> 鈥淭here are a lot of organized folks trying to attack us online,鈥� Keltch said. 鈥淎nyone can go on the dark web now and buy lists of identities and passwords that have been breached. The level of sophistication of the attackers has really risen in recent years. People need to be on their toes and aware of threats on the internet.鈥� The sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought the abrupt closure of many offices and workplaces that resulted in a shift to remote work for millions of Americans.聽 A 2022 report from the said that roughly six-in-ten U.S. workers who say their jobs can mainly be done from home (59 percent) are still working from home all or most of the time more than two years after the pandemic began. Keltch, who has more than 30 years of experience working in information technology, said that this new era of working remotely can lead to security risks when employees don鈥檛 take the proper security measures for their home devices. Those who work from home are especially vulnerable to sophisticated phishing attacks via email and texts that impersonate co-workers and bosses. 鈥淭hese attacks are no longer the 鈥楤anking request from a king in a foreign country鈥� email, but have become much more sophisticated and targeted,鈥� Keltch said. 鈥淚 might get a false email from my supervisor that tells me to purchase this software right away, and I need it tomorrow. If I didn鈥檛 validate it, I might go purchase it from an unknown provider or provide my account information. Knowing how to recognize and combat these phishing attacks is important.鈥� It can be hard for employees to identify these messages as false since they often come from someone they know, include the company鈥檚 logo and email addresses, and contain inside information that strangers shouldn鈥檛 know. 鈥淐yber criminals really count on what they call social engineering,鈥� Keltch said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 tricking individuals to provide information they shouldn鈥檛 provide or to allow something to be installed on their machine that shouldn鈥檛 be installed. They rely on connectedness. They study social media to understand who your boss is, who your friends are, and they use that information to gain your trust and try to take actions that will harm you.鈥� Keltch recommends several tips for how remote workers can protect themselves online:

1. Strengthen your password hygiene. The most important step you can take to protect yourself is to not use personal information in passwords and repeat passwords for account logins. Instead, use passphrases and a password manager to keep your login information more secure. If you are using the same passwords over and over, you are definitely putting yourself at risk. Hackers are constantly running algorithms trying to crack your passwords.
2. Secure your home devices by updating your computer鈥檚 operating system and set it to automatically accept security upgrades and patches, encrypt hard drives and other electronic storage devices, and use a virtual private network to encrypt data.
3. Harden your home鈥檚 WiFi network by making sure your WiFi router has a unique and non-default password and that you have enabled WiFi encryption. Regularly update your router鈥檚 firmware and install patches.

For those working on campus, Keltch recommends using 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 Google for Education suite and a virtual private network. People should not save their passwords to internet browsers since that information can be easily accessible. When in doubt about the authenticity of an email or text message, you should call that person directly to see if they sent the message. Another major concern for employers is ransomware attacks where hackers will lock a system, encrypt files, and demand a ransom payment in order to access the system again. The perpetrators of the ransomware attack often demand payment in cryptocurrency because it鈥檚 untraceable. Furthermore, ransomware attacks are hitting the education and healthcare industries hard nowadays, so university employees and students should be more aware of the potential for these attacks. 鈥淥n campus, a big cyber threat is ransomware,鈥� Keltch said. 鈥淎 bad agent will attempt to get into our network, penetrate our firewalls, and lock us out of our databases. Imagine what it would be like if we didn鈥檛 have access to Banner or Boss. The hackers usually require payment in cryptocurrency because it鈥檚 untraceable. That鈥檚 happened to a couple of universities in Arkansas. 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, like most聽 universities, protects themselves by backing up critical data at sites off campus in case of ransomware attacks.鈥� Today鈥檚 online world means students, faculty, and employees can work from anywhere, but it doesn鈥檛 mean that we have to put our data, information, and systems at risk. Following聽 these precautions, remote students and workers can be more confident in their remote security and shut the door to any hackers who might want to take advantage of them.]]> /news-archive/2021/06/29/internet-safety-month-maryam-maleki/ Tue, 29 Jun 2021 14:06:10 +0000 /news/?p=79290 ... Internet Safety Month Student Profile: Maryam Maleki]]> In celebration of Internet Safety Month, 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock is profiling student researchers working in this area.聽 Maryam Maleki joined 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in the fall 2018 semester to pursue a doctoral degree in systems engineering. She holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree in electronic engineering and a master鈥檚 degree in systems and industrial engineering from Tehran, Iran, and has a decade of experience in quality control/assurance in the car industry. She joined COSMOS in the fall 2019 semester, where her research is focused on misinformation, mathematical modeling, machine learning, and social media analysis. What do you find interesting about your major? I am doing research on different aspects of social media. Social media is a very hot topic these days and the evaluation of misinformation can be so helpful. What kind of research projects are you working on that are related to internet safety? I am trying to find a mathematical model to evaluate the spread of misinformation on different social media platforms. My research demonstrated that there are similarities between the spread of misinformation on social media and disease in a community. Since June is Internet Safety Month, do you have any advice for how people can keep themselves safe online? People should never trust the news and information they are exposed to on social media. They should do some research to make sure that the information is correct before spreading it. They never should share their personal information and specifically their financial information on any not trustworthy website. What do you plan to do after you graduate? I would like to continue to do research on different aspects of social media, especially misinformation and disinformation.]]> /news-archive/2021/06/28/internet-safety-month-benjamin-miller/ Mon, 28 Jun 2021 13:52:48 +0000 /news/?p=79287 ... Internet Safety Month Student Profile: Benjamin Miller]]> In celebration of Internet Safety Month, 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock is profiling student researchers working in this area.聽 Tell us about yourself. My name is Benjamin Miller. I am from Cabot, and my major is cybersecurity. Why did you choose 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock? I chose 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock because of the scholarship opportunities and because I heard good things about the engineering and computer science programs. What do you find interesting about your major? I find security interesting. The fact that even a single person can have a huge impact on security is really interesting. I think that penetration testing is an interesting side of the field. Social engineering is a really interesting side of penetration testing because of the fact that it is a people skill in a computer-based field. What kind of research and projects are you working on at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock that are related to internet safety? I am working at the Cyber Gym. I work on the various workouts that schools use to educate people in cybersecurity. Since June is Internet Safety Month, do you have any advice for how people can keep themselves safe online? I would say that not clicking on random links, and checking that people are who they say they are on social media is really important.]]> /news-archive/2021/06/10/internet-safety-month-student-profile-ethan-oleske/ Thu, 10 Jun 2021 15:40:12 +0000 /news/?p=79225 ... Internet Safety Month Student Profile: Ethan O鈥橪eske]]> Tell us about yourself? My name is Ethan O’Leske. I was born and raised in Little Rock, AR, and am currently pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. From my early adolescence, I was drawn to technical skills like software development and programming, because it helped me understand the technology I interacted with everyday. As I reflect on my three years spent at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, I find that these skills have drawn me towards cybersecurity, in large part due to work at a research center on campus, the Emerging Analytics Center. Why did you choose 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock? While I liked that 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock was in my hometown, the main reason I chose 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock over other local universities was because of its focus on research and student involvement. This focus allows for a much deeper and meaningful education, through professionally applicable experience and a closer connection to what we study. I believe it is 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock’s commitment to student-led research that sets it apart from other universities. What do you find interesting about your major? I find that computer science as a major is often oversimplified. In reality, it leads to a broad range of careers and industries, from cybersecurity specialists to user experience designers to software developers. It’s fascinating how many different trajectories a professional can experience from one major. I would discourage students from thinking that computer science is not for them, without looking at these career potentials. This major can be highly technical, artistic, philosophical or interdisciplinary, depending on the specific route. What kind of research and projects are you working on at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock that are related to internet safety? The primary research project I have been involved in regarding internet safety is called Spartan, which I work on through the Emerging Analytics Center. Spartan is a vulnerability management application intended to be used as a tool by cybersecurity specialists. A vulnerability is anything on a cyber device that can be exploited by a malicious actor to compromise the security of the cyber system. Even moderately sized companies could have hundreds of devices that may have vulnerabilities to be exploited by anyone with an internet connection.聽 Spartan is intended to help these companies track the vulnerabilities that apply to their system and patch them in the most efficient way. To achieve this, we have implemented technologies such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing to automate a lot of the work done by cybersecurity specialists everyday. Many of the companies funding the research for this project are in critical infrastructure industries, who use tools like these to ensure the utilities we rely on cannot be interfered with. Since June is Internet Safety Month, do you have any advice for how people can keep themselves safe online? Any form of security is all about practicing good habits and having a plan. For internet safety, it’s important to form good habits such as not posting private information publicly, using a password manager with strong passwords, updating devices promptly to receive any security patches and only using trusted internet resources. Inevitably, there may come a time where precautions fail, and it’s important to know what to do in these circumstances. For example, if one’s credit card information is stolen, then they must know how to report the theft. There are many good online resources to ensure you are prepared; one example would be the United States’ Government disaster and emergency preparation public service campaign called Ready (). What do you plan to do after you graduate? What is your future career? One advantage about computer science and cybersecurity is the breadth of opportunities that exist for both entry-level and established professionals. While this is exciting, it does make it harder for me to nail down exactly which opportunity to leverage. I have aspirations to earn a graduate degree in computer science, but I may choose to enter the workforce in either software development or cybersecurity if there is an opportunity to do so. Is there anything else you鈥檇 like to add? One of the biggest events of 2021 has been the onset of ransomware attacks targeting small-to-medium-sized companies, such as JBS and the Colonial Pipeline. Though these attacks are symptoms of how institutions like companies and governments have approached cybersecurity over the past couple decades, they dealt a disproportionate amount of harm towards individuals. These recent events should highlight the importance of cybersecurity, and the dangers of not taking these issues as seriously as experts suggest.聽 Many of us worry about our personal cybersecurity, but, in our interconnected world, we are increasingly more reliant on the cybersecurity of our critical infrastructure, financial institutions, industries and others. It is important that we all make ourselves aware about these issues and speak out where it is necessary. We can only do so much by ourselves. Collectively, we have the power to make our communities safer and more secure.]]>