Viruses and hackers beware: Today is the start of the sixth annual Security Awareness Week at UA. With the prior five efforts being limited to one day, this is the first time an entire week has been dedicated to the cause.
“”The intent … is to make people aware of the threats that are out here and what they need to do to protect themselves,”” said Kelley Bogart, senior specialist in information security.
Events will kick off with the Information Security Office hosting a tent on the UA Mall with representatives who will answer questions about security, wireless Internet access and issues in cyberspace. The tent will be up today at 10 a.m. through 1 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“”We will even help them connect on wirelessly to the UA-secured network,”” Bogart said.
Events will be held every day with most running twice during the week.
“”There’s a session on securing home computers, session on setting up wireless or using wireless, session on safe surfing and social networking. … We have another one that’s more related to office security; it’s called, ‘What your IT people can’t do for you,'”” Bogart said.
She added that it is extremely important for students to be aware of threats in today’s digital age, especially on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
“”There is just so much more to it. … I think we just trust, and we put this stuff out there, and we think we’re going to invite our friends to look at our social networking page, or whatever. You know Sarah Palin’s e-mail, that’s how it got hacked, you know. Because one of the questions to get into change her password on her e-mail is what high school did she go to. So the more info you put out there, you’re just giving information that can be security related questions. Your birthday … those things that they ask you, those are the type of things that get you access legitimately.””
Another reason for the week-long endeavor was to serve students who had conflicting schedules. Bogart said even though events are offered on multiple days, she knew schedules are difficult to work around, so the sessions can be streamed via the Internet from security.arizona.edu/safe08. However, it may be a few weeks before all the session are placed on the site.
“”It might be three weeks or so before we get them all up there,”” Bogart said.
The week is carrying a James Bond theme, with all the events named after the popular spy films. Bogart said they wanted to pick a topic and then name each session after a film to get students’ attention.
“”We’re trying to pick a topic that most people don’t pay attention to and don’t have time for. … We have busy schedules, so we really tried to add something that made them at least take a look at it.””
Other topics broached during the week will be the dangers of not securing a wireless network and peer-to-peer network sharing.
“”Peer-to-peer is huge. I know it’s fun to get that file-sharing tool, but with a lot of those things that people are downloading, what do you know about the person putting it out there? … Kazaa and Limewire, those are really bad because when you install them, they open up your hard drive to the world,”” Bogart said.
Free services will also be pointed out during the sessions for students who are not aware of what they can get just for being a UA student.
“”Why pay for McAfee when you can get it for free from the university?”” Bogart said.
For a schedule of events and locations, visit http://security.arizona.edu/SAFE08.
