Information Technology Team Diligently Keeps Campus Safe from Online Threats
Release Date: October 30, 2020
Colorado State University Pueblo Information Technology (IT) staff use numerous strategies to keep the campus safe from cyber threats, that include traditional education and information efforts to highly sophisticated online cybersecurity tools.Their role at the university was recently underscored this past month as October was recognized as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM).
Chris Milliken, executive director of Information Technology at CSU Pueblo praised the work of the university cyber security professionals.
“The need for training and awareness never stops and the IT staff relies very much on the partnerships we have with our campus community in order to stay safe,” he said. “I’m especially grateful for our IT Security Manager, Mark Gonzales and the IT Security Team who tirelessly work to improve operation’s security as well as respond to any incident that puts our campus members at risk.”
CSU Pueblo IT continues to update the campus through the internal email digest and engaged group on campus with resources like the cybersecurity toolkit offered by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CSU Pueblo IT also provides its annual information security training, to be completed by all faculty and staff on campus.The training is 40 minutes with helpful tips to keep the campus safe.
Securing passwords and “being cybersmart” like the NCSAM slogan is more important with more people are working online now due to the pandemic, explained IT Security Manager Mark Gonzales. “We look to educate people in small, tangible ways about being wary of clicking on links, using secure passwords or simply reading email addresses from an unknown sender before making a decision that can impact their cybersecurity,” said Gonzales.
Though October is known as a time to increase awareness, Milliken firmly believes that “Cybersecurity Awareness Month” should be every month of the year. “The IT department has watched the steady increase of cybersecurity threats over time and it seems the threats have increased more since the pandemic hit,” said Milliken. “I’m therefore very grateful for the vigilance our folks have shown in staying suspicious of emails and doing everything possible to handle sensitive data appropriately and bring attention to issues.”
CSU Pueblo’s IT department sends updated messaging to educate the campus about malware designed to steal campus data or personal data.Milliken and Gonzales both regularly work on campus outreach and applaud the efforts of students, faculty or staff who bring forth security threats to campus through phishing emails, suspicious text messages or other social engineering scams. Through continued communication CSU Pueblo IT professionals continually protect personally identifiable information and campus intellectual property from damage or theft.
Gonzales leads the IT Security Team on campus at CSU Pueblo, which addresses cyber security threats for students, faculty and staff. The group collaborates with other cybersecurity and IT professionals across Pueblo and shares best practices with IT colleagues working in higher education. For more information about the work of Information Technology visit the Information Technology website.
