Welcome back, once again, to National Cyber Security Awareness Month, October 2011. Some of you may be saying “What???”, while others may be saying “Again?????”  Either way, it is important for Brown to take part in this national event.

There are three reasons why we do this each year: 1.) to introduce (or remind) you to the Information Security Group (ISG), 2.) To raise the awareness level of security across the university (which reduces our risk), and 3.) To simply have some fun.

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Not sure if your computer might be harboring personally identifiable information (PII), whether others or your own, but don’t know how to find and protect it? There will soon be an easy way to hunt it down and clean it up: Identity Finder.

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Meet Zack, the Information Security Group’s official spokesperson/mascot for all activities and communications for the 2011 National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

We recently caught up with Zack, who is very busy prepping for October, to ask him a few questions.

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CIS has purchased licenses for the encryption software Guardian Edge and is currently making preparations for a limited release late fall/early winter. Guardian Edge will provide full disk encryption for all data — whether user files, swap files, system files, hidden files, etc. — stored on a PC or Intel-based Mac. A typical Guardian Edge user would be a faculty or staff member who travels (on or off campus) with a laptop storing personally identifiable information (PII).

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In the last edition of Secure IT!, we announced that CIS would soon be adopting a new digital cert service. That service will become available the end of the semester.

On August 18th, CIS began the transition to SSL-VPN, a new way to securely connect to Brown’s network when off-campus using VPN (Virtual Private Network). During the transition period, as the new service gears up in the Brown environment, the current Cisco client will continue to be available, to be decommissioned sometime later in the academic year.

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Brown University is joining a growing group of institutions who share a secure world-wide roaming access service that was developed for the international research and education community. Currently in the testing phase, plans are for Brown to become an active member by the end of November.

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