By Isabella Maso | Reporter
The threats to online security are not idle.
In 93 percent of hacking cases online, hackers took less than one minute to access the information they were after, according to the 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report.
Recently, a Baylor staff member had her bank account drained of thousands of dollars after hackers stole her information.
This specific incident occurred right before October, also known as National Cyber Security month, which highlights the need to maintain online security.
“People are often very lackadaisical about their security until something happens, and it’s when something happens, major or minor, that they get more serious about it,” said Carl Flynn, director of marketing and communications for Baylor Information and Technology Services.
Waco senior Ashton Parsons agrees that she, as well as her peers, are not as careful as they could be.
“I think it’s probably safer to have all different passwords for things, but I’m guilty of having one for everything,” Parsons said. “So if someone found out my password, they would literally know everything.”
Throughout the month of October, ITS will be launching a campaign that focuses on ways people can improve their online security standings.
“So we are, as every year, preparing an information campaign that will focus on 10 themes,” Flynn said. “And those 10 themes are derived from 10 most basic threat matrices to our community. And most of them are super basic things like strong passwords, not sharing passwords and other private information that might compromise your security.”
Aside from the 10 themes, Flynn also mentioned that the “big push” of the campaign is the two-factor identification system, Duo, for Bearweb.
This new system will have students use their login information as well as have a code sent through their mobile device to complete the login process.
“I don’t imagine we’re making people change their whole perspective on their information overnight, but at least they will think for a moment about whether they’re doing their due diligence to keep themselves secure,” Flynn said.
For more information about the campaign, visit the Bear Aware webpage on Baylor’s site.
