Be Prepared…
Get ready for those harmful hackers looking to get control of your accounts and add an extra layer of security by enabling multi-factor authentication.
Cybersecurity Tip: Multifactor Authentication
Category: Student Resources
Cybersecurity Tip: Password Power!
Strong Passwords and Password Manager
Don’t get tricked and instead treat the security of all of your accounts equally. No matter how unimportant you think your account may be, hackers find value in everything.
Tips and Tricks
Password Creation
- Hackers don’t hack in, they log in. Protect your passwords by making them complex and unique to each website.
- The wilder, the better! A long, complex password is your first line of defense against hackers.
Memorizing and Storing Passwords
- Do you find yourself clicking “forgot your password” again? Let a password manager remember it for you! By storing your login info in a vault, you’ll never forget it.
- Give your memory a break and store multiple passwords in one password manager. Doing so is more secure and strengthens your defenses.
Subscribe to our Posts
Did you miss the latest announcement? Subscribe to receive our posts directly to your inbox!
Spooky Season is Upon Us and So Is…
Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Let’s avoid cybersecurity nightmares and prepare for this spooky season and beyond.
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month where Information Services will share some tips to keep the phishing phantoms, horrid hackers, and the malicious malware away.
Subscribe to get your tips this month!
Subscribe to our Posts
Did you miss the latest IS announcement? Subscribe to receive our posts directly to your inbox!
Welcome! – Fall 2024
Welcome!
K Students, Faculty, and Staff,
Welcome, welcome, welcome! Whether it is your first or last year at the College, the Information Services (IS) team is here to help you get ready for the new academic year. To start the quarter off right, please review the list of common resources available to you.
If you need to connect, please feel free to send us an email at HelpDesk@kzoo.edu or stop by the Help Desk in the Upjohn Library Commons (located on the first floor to the right of the grand staircase). We’re open Monday – Friday: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. with Student Computer Consultants available during some off hours.
Student Tools
- Hornet Hive – The Hornet Hive is the campus hub for announcements, event listings, and links to campus web resources.
- Office 365 – Free access to Office 365 which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Sway, Teams, Stream, and online file storage space in OneDrive.
- Moodle – Where you can access instructor course materials, your grades throughout the quarter, and more.
- Printing – Information on standard laser printing, color and large format/poster printing, 3D printing, printer locations, cost, print credits allotments, and how to set up wireless printing.
- Connecting to the Internet – See our instructions for using the eduroam network! Setup takes a few minutes, but it will work all year, all over campus, and at other campuses all over the world.
Visit the Student Tools page for more resources and student IS news throughout the year.
Faculty Tools
- New Employee Tech Onboarding Process – Are you a supervisor with a new team member? Review the process to get your new employee the technology they need.
- New Employee IS Resource List – Are you a new employee and need a starting point on the IS resources available to you? Check out the new employee IS resource list!
- Accounts and Passwords – For information on your K College network accounts
- Moodle Help– Information on requesting a course and getting help with our course management system.
- Classroom Technology – Information on using classroom equipment.
- Office 365 – Links to Office 365 training and documentation by Microsoft.
- Computer Support and Consulting – How to get help, and information about K College computer hardware renewal.
- Phone Services – Quick guides on how to use your office phone along with phone line troubleshooting.
- Campus Events & Announcements – Information and instructions on the Campus announcement system.
Visit the Faculty Tools page for more information on other resources to utilize throughout the year.
Staff Tools
- New Employee Tech Onboarding Process – Are you a supervisor with a new team member? Review the process to get your new employee the technology they need.
- New Employee IS Resource List – Are you a new employee and need a starting point on the IS resources available to you? Check out the new employee IS resource list!
- Office 365 – Links to Office 365 training and documentation by Microsoft.
- Computer Support and Consulting – Who to contact in need and renewal information.
- Department Printers – Learn where to purchase printer cartridges and how to get printer repairs
- Campus Events & Announcements – Information and instructions on the Campus announcement system.
- Phone Services – Quick guides on how to use your office phone along with phone line troubleshooting.
- Accounts and Passwords – For information on your K College network accounts
- Colleague – For users that need information on our campus administrative system.
- Website Management – For assistance using WordPress and Reason, the K College CMS.
View the Staff Tools page for more information on other resources to utilize throughout the year.
Additional Resources Worth Mentioning
- Answer Bot – Looking for answers but you can’t connect with the Help Desk. Not to worry, try to find what you need using our self-help assistant, Answer Bot.
- Register an Entertainment Device – Do you have an entertainment device such as a console to use on the Kalamazoo College network? Check out the Register a Device page to follow the required steps and complete the Device Registration form.
- Wi-Fi Issues
- Visit the Wi-Fi troubleshooting page to assist you in resolving your issue. Please attempt all troubleshooting tips that apply to your circumstance before completing a report.
- Due to the complexities of Wi-Fi-related problems, specific details are needed to help resolve Wi-Fi related issues. You must provide the following in order to submit a Wi-Fi Outage Report.
Subscribe to our Posts
Did you miss the latest announcement? Subscribe to receive our posts directly to your inbox!
Help is on the way! Introducing Answer Bot
Hello Hornets!
With the long weekend ahead and finals on the way, Information Services has a friendly new face to help you find what you need when the Help Desk is away…
Introducing Answer Bot, a new interface where K students, faculty, staff, and parents can try to find what they need with suggestions from Answer Bot. Not seeing a solution? Answer Bot also helps you submit a request to the Help Desk much easier.
So, give it a go…
New Year, New(ish) IS Resources
Happy New Year K Community!
To kick off 2023, here are some new and some not so new IS resources that will come in handy throughout the quarter.
As always, if you need to connect, please feel free to send us an email at HelpDesk@kzoo.edu or stop by the Help Desk in the Upjohn Library Commons (located on the first floor to the right of the grand staircase). We’re open Monday – Friday: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. with Student Computer Consultants available during some off hours.
Community Member Pages
Looking for resources depending on whether you’re a student, faculty, or staff member? If so, select the page that relates to you:
New Employees
Did you know there are resources for supervisor’s hiring new employees and onboarding tips for new employees? Check them out:
Partner with IS
K faculty and staff are supposed to consult and partner with IS when considering any technology hardware; software; services; and any cloud or externally hosted systems. It’s true!
Learn how to get started:
Scheduled Maintenance
You can count on Information Services regularly performing upgrades and maintenance Thursday evenings from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. During this time you can expect a brief VPN disruption.
Note: IS may not publish a weekly scheduled maintenance post if systems do not directly affect the campus community.
Subscribe to our Posts
Did you miss the latest IS announcement? Subscribe to receive our posts directly to your inbox!
Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Phishing
This week’s post for Cybersecurity Awareness Month covers Phishing.
What is Phishing?
According to the National Cybersecurity Alliance, phishing is “a form of social engineering by which cyber criminals attempt to trick individuals by creating and sending fake emails that appear to be from an authentic source, such as a business or colleague.” Some phishing tactics used by criminals include:
- Forging a message from a financial institution, claiming you’ve been a victim of fraud
- Impersonating a supervisor, asking for help with a task
- Claiming to be a delivery company, alerting you to a problem with a package
When you see these sorts of messages, it’s important to be vigilant.
How do I know if the message is fake?
Some red flags include:
- Email structure
- The sending email address doesn’t match the company it’s coming from
- Poorly-crafted writing with misspellings, and bad grammar
- Greetings that are ambiguous or very generic
- Language that’s urgent, alarming, or threatening
- Requests
- Strange or abrupt business requests
- Requests to send personal information
- Urgency to click on an unfamiliar hyperlink or attachment
- Offers
- Contains an offer that’s too good to be true
See a Phishing Email? Here’s what to do…
- Pat yourself on the back for recognizing that an email is fake and part of a phishing scam.
- Report the phishing message through Outlook by selecting the Junk option in the top ribbon and then Report as Phishing option. If you’re using the web version of Outlook, simply right click on the preview of the phishing email, hover over Report and select Report Phishing.
- Not sure? Ask the Help Desk!
Suggested Articles from your IS Team
- Brandon Buchholz – Why Am I Getting Spam From My Own Email Address?
- Katrina Frank – Microsoft: Phishing and suspicious behaviour
The content on this page was adapted from the National Cybersecurity Alliance’s information on phishing.
Subscribe to our Posts
Did you miss the latest IS announcement? Subscribe to receive our posts directly to your inbox!
Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Multi-Factor Authentication
This week’s post for Cybersecurity Awareness Month covers Multi-Factor Authentication.
What is MFA?
An authentication factor is a way for a person to identify oneself to a computer. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) means using more than one factor to prove to a computer that you are who you say you are. Typical authentication factors come in three types:
- Something you know (like a password or PIN number)
- Something you have (like a phone or ID card)
- Something you are (biometrics like a fingerprint or facial recognition)
You probably use MFA all the time: when you use an ATM, you use a debit card (something you have) with a PIN (something you know). When someone checks that your face matches the picture on your driver’s license, they’re authenticating you with two factors.
How does MFA help?
According to Microsoft, 99.9% of account compromise attacks can be stopped with MFA. When you use MFA, a cybercriminal who wants to use your account will face a much greater challenge. If your password is compromised but a second authentication factor is required to sign in, a criminal using your password will not be able to authenticate as you. Visit the National Cybersecurity Alliance MFA page for more information.
Where should we use MFA?
You should use MFA with any service that stores sensitive information. These include:
- financial sites (like your bank, credit card company, or investment account)
- social media (like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)
- email (like Gmail or Hotmail)
- your Kalamazoo College network account
MFA is required for all students, faculty, and staff, and more information can be found at our Multi-Factor Authentication page.
Subscribe to our Posts
Did you miss the latest IS announcement? Subscribe to receive our posts directly to your inbox!
Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Passwords and Password Manager
This week’s post for Cybersecurity Awareness Month covers habits relating to passwords and password managers. To be cybersecure:
1. Create passwords with these three principles
- Long – All passwords should be at least 12 characters long.
- Unique – Never reuse passwords and create unique passwords for each account.
- Complex – Use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters.
Remembering passwords and following these principles may sound hard, but there’s a better way…
2. Use a Password Manager
Password managers make it easy to use passwords that are long, unique, and complex. They save time, work across all your devices and operating systems, and can alert you when a password has become compromised. Visit the National Cybersecurity Alliance password managers page for more information including password manager options you can use to be more secure.
3. Know When to Change your Password
As reported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology it is no longer recommended to change your passwords every few months. For personal accounts we recommend focusing on creating long, unique, and complex passwords. Should you become aware that an unauthorized person is accessing an account or a password was compromised in a data breach, change your password immediately. Please note that as part of our process at Kalamazoo College, we require users to change your KNET password periodically; however, there may be a change to this process in the future.
The information on this page was adapted from the National Cybersecurity Alliance’s passwords and NCSAs password manager page.
Subscribe to our Posts
Did you miss the latest IS announcement? Subscribe to receive our posts directly to your inbox!
Cybersecurity Awareness Month – Oct 2022
Did you know that October 2022 marks the 19th Annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month?
To spread cybersecurity awareness, this month IS will be sharing key behaviors we can all adopt to be more secure. Read our posts each Friday for the month of October to learn more.
About Cybersecurity Awareness Month
“The National Cybersecurity Alliance launched Cybersecurity Awareness Month in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2004. The campaign is a strong collaboration between government and private industry to raise awareness about online security” (National Cybersecurity Alliance). You can learn more about the month and other cybersecurity initiatives on the National Cybersecurity Alliance website.
Habits to adopt:
Throughout the month of October we will be sharing more detailed information on the following habits:
- Using strong passwords and a password manager
- Enabling multi-factor authentication
- Recognizing and reporting phishing
- Complete required and offered cybersecurity trainings offered by IS
Subscribe to our Posts
Did you miss the latest IS announcement? Subscribe to receive our posts directly to your inbox!