InfoSec News & Alerts

Welcome to the (newly renovated) Information Security News and Alerts site!

If you are looking for the latest news and alerts, just click here, or continue to scroll down this page.

This news and alerts site was initially designed to allow members of the Berry College community to independently verify the validity of an email, announcement, or event. Its use has been expanded to include a monthly newsletter, a quick info section, a Q&A board, and a calendar (currently under maintenance) to announce upcoming Information Security events. Every October, it also hosts weekly articles in conjunction with National Cyber-Security Awareness Month.

Information Security’s goal is to update the site as quickly as possible whenever an email scam or other suspicious event affects the campus community. When possible, it will also announce in advance any potentially suspicious emails or events. Here are the basic types of entries found on the site.

Items which warn the community of potential issues are marked with a red circle with an “X”, like this –

Items that confirm the validity of emails or events are marked with a green circle with a check-mark, as shown here – .

Third-party data breaches are announced on the site based on community impact. They are designated with an icon that looks like a computer monitor on fire – .

Informational articles are generally published when a topic has captured the attention of the community or is deemed to be urgent in nature. This also includes monthly newsletters. They are marked with a yellow circle with “FYI” on it – .

Be sure to check the Events Calendar (once it comes back online) to see upcoming events, including training, Lunch-ITS, tables in Krannert (whenever that can happen again), and events related to National Cyber-Security Awareness Month (October of every year).

During October, there will be weekly articles posted on information security awareness topics and they will all be marked with the following icon – .

The site is searchable by title, topic, type of article, and type of suspicious activity or email.

Have a question about information security, but don’t have time for a long answer? Check out the “Quick Info” pages for the topics below (more coming soon). If the Quick Info page doesn’t answer your question, you can always email infosec@berry.edu for a more detailed explanation.

Password managers

Multi-factor (or two-factor) authentication

Phishing

Good password guidelines

What does a valid Berry voicemail notification look like?

What is “vishing”?

Is this financial aid email real?

…more to come!

Here you can ask general questions about information security and get an answer from OIT.

WARNING! These questions and answers are publicly viewable.

If you have a question of a sensitive nature, please contact Information Security directly via email or phone.

Email: infosec@berry.edu

Phone: x1750 or 706-236-1750

Berry College annually participates in National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). Each year a selection of topics is chosen to emphasize to the community the importance of cyber security awareness. Each week of October a different topic is highlighted through emails, social media posts, articles, posters, and face to face activities. The primary goal is to help the community understand that security is a shared responsibility. Everyone must contribute for the college to be as secure as possible.

Article Archive

Below are links to the previous years’ articles. On each page you will find all the weekly articles published in connection with NCSAM for that year. Just click on a link to go to that year. Realize that some of the articles may reference events that are in the past. Some articles may reference security advice that has been deprecated. If so, the article will be flagged with an update that will point to current and more accurate information.

NCSAM 2019

NCSAM 2018

NCSAM 2017

NCSAM 2016

NCSAM 2015

NCSAM 2014