The brilliant Hannah Morgan and I presented Bullet Proofing Your Career Online at the STC Rochester Spectrum Conference. We’ll be presenting again at the STC Technical Communications Summit in Rosemont, IL in May. You won’t be able to experience our incredibly witty repartee, but I’ve embedded the slides below.
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Information Security, Internet Safety, Presentations, Privacy, Risk, Social Networking, STC, STC Rochester, Summit | Tagged: Best practice, Communication, Facebook, Facebook privacy, Information security, Internet Safety, Phishing, Privacy, privacy settings, reputation management, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rosemont Illinois, Society for Technical Communication, STC Rochester | 
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Posted by Ben Woelk
I shared this presentation at the October program meeting of the Rochester Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. The presentation demonstrates how the Information Security Office at the Rochester Institute of Technology used marketing techniques to reinforce key messages to raise awareness around information security concerns such as phishing.
To see more about how we’re using blogging to raise awareness in a specific academic course, visit the RIT Cyber Self Defense blog.
Leave a Comment » | Facebook, Higher Education, Information Security, Internet Safety, Presentations, Social Networking, STC, STC Rochester, techcomm | Tagged: Best practice, Facebook, Facebook privacy, Higher education, Information security, Information Technology, Internet Safety, Marketing, Phishing, RIT, Rochester Institute of Technology, Security, Social media, Society for Technical Communication, STC Rochester | Permalink
Posted by Ben Woelk
Did you know you’re a target every time you go online? Did you know that cyber criminals are targeting social networking sites? Do you know how to recognize a phishing attempt? Following these tips will help make your use of social networking sites safer. (Unfortunately, there’s no way to guarantee that you can use them safely.)
It’s important to use strong passwords because automated “cracking” programs can break weak passwords in minutes. At a minimum, you should use 8 characters (preferably 15 or more), mixing upper and lower case letters and numbers. Many websites also allow the use of longer passwords and special characters. Incorporating special characters into your password will make them more difficult to crack. You’ll also want to use different passwords on different accounts. Using a password safe such as LastPass will help you manage these passwords by generating strong passwords and then supplying them when needed.
Attackers take advantage of vulnerabilities in software to place malware on your computers. Keeping up to date with patches/updates helps thwart attackers from using “exploits” to attack known vulnerabilities. It’s important to keep both your Operating System (Windows, Mac OS, linux, etc.) and your applications (Microsoft Office, Adobe, QuickTime) patched.
It’s a good practice to follow the requirements of the RIT Desktop and Portable Computer Security Standard on personally-owned computers. Among other elements, the standard requires use of a firewall, antivirus, and anti-spyware programs. Many security suites contain all of the elements needed to protect your computer. (Your Internet Service Provider may also provide security software.)
You’ve all seen phishing attacks. They’re typically emails that appear to come from a financial institution that ask you to verify information by providing your username and password. Never respond to these requests. Your financial institution should not need your password.
Don’t post personal information (contact info, class schedule, residence, etc.) A talented hacker can see this, even if you’ve restricted your privacy settings! Don’t post potentially embarrassing or compromising photos. Be aware of what photos you’re being “tagged” in—don’t hesitate to ask others to remove photographs of you from their pages.
Did you know that most employers “Google” prospective employees? Have you seen the stories of people’s homes being burglarized because they’ve posted their vacation plans online? Many people other than your friends use these sites.
You can’t really tell who’s using a social network account. If you use Facebook, you’ve certainly seen posts by your “friends” whose accounts have been compromised. Don’t feel like you have to accept every friend request, especially if you don’t know the person.
Have you ever done a “vanity search?” Put your name in a search engine and see what it finds. Did you know that Google allows you to set up an Alert that will monitor when your name appears online? Setting this up with daily notifications will help you see where your name appears.
Identity thieves can put together information you share to develop a profile to help them impersonate you. Be especially careful of Facebook applications. They may collect information that they sell to marketing companies or their databases could be compromised. Do they really need the information they’re requesting?
Default settings in most social networks are set to sharing all information. Adjust the social network’s privacy settings to help protect your identity. Show “limited friends” a cut-down version of your profile. Choose the strongest privacy settings and then “open” them only if needed.
Add me to your circle on Google+
3 Comments | Information Security, Internet Safety, Privacy, Social Networking, Uncategorized | Tagged: Best practice, Facebook, Facebook privacy, Internet Safety, LastPass, Privacy, privacy settings, Risk, Security, Social media, Social network, social networking | Permalink
Posted by Ben Woelk
Rob Cottingham had done an earlier cartoon on the subject as well:
I can only wonder what the next cartoon will be.
2 Comments | Facebook, Information Security, Internet Safety, Privacy, techcomm, Uncategorized | Tagged: Communication, Facebook, Facebook privacy, Information security, Internet Safety, Privacy, Risk, Security, social networking | Permalink
Posted by Ben Woelk
I had the privilege of presenting my 25-minute presentation on Shockproofing Your Use of Social Media as a five-minute Lightning Talk at the STC Summit in Sacramento on May 18th.
Lightning talks introduce an additional element of stress for the presenters: the slides advance every 15 seconds whether they’re ready or not. Our audience was ~150 Summit attendees, so we were presenting to our peers as well.
It’s quite the experience sharing the stage with eight other presenters with totally different styles. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!
9 Comments | Cyberstalking, Facebook, Information Security, Internet Safety, Presentations, Privacy, Risk, Social Networking, STC, Summit, Uncategorized | Tagged: Best practice, Facebook privacy, Information security, Information Technology, Internet Safety, Lightning Talk, Phishing, Privacy, Risk, RIT, Rochester Institute of Technology, Security, security awareness video, social networking, Society for Technical Communication, STC Rochester | Permalink
Posted by Ben Woelk
