National Cyber Security Awareness Month Success Stories

[Ben Woelk <fbwis () RIT EDU>]

National Cyber Security Awareness Month has just concluded-and our campuses are now secure!

Of course, it's not that easy! However, increased emphasis on Information Security Awareness during October will pay 
dividends as our campus communities become more aware of safe practices and the threats they face.

We've received several campus success stories at EDUCAUSE and wanted to share a few of them as "idea starters" for your 
awareness efforts. We can't share the complete list in this email, but information about these and many more are 
available from our Cybersecurity Awareness Resource Library <https://wiki.internet2.edu:443/confluence/x/PQtG> or the 
Resource Kit for National Cyber Security Awareness Month 
<https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/itsg2/NCSAM+Resource+Kit>. Thank you to the National Cyber Security 
Alliance <http://www.staysafeonline.org/ncsam> for promoting this event.

Here are a FEW highlights among the MANY innovative events and campaigns:


*         Solve the Mystery Campaign--Texas A&M University put together a website with a Halloween theme that compared 
common cyber threats to traditional Halloween villains: Werewolves, Vampires, Pirates, and Zombies. The site contains 
videos, villain rap sheets, and "Cases" that visitors can solve for a chance to win an Apple iPad and other prizes. 
<http://mystery.tamu.edu>


*         Walk the Walk--The University of Pennsylvania reached out to faculty/staff/students on campus through an 
event called "Walk the Walk" that included security quizzes and food giveaways, as well as "Grady the Security Dog." 
Individual schools and centers also arranged events and created resources. 
<http://www.upenn.edu/computing/security/ncsam/>


*         Change the Way You Think about IT Security!--The University of Northern Colorado gave away grizzly stress 
balls and color-changing mood pencils, placed posters and table tent cards, and put stickers on the residence hall 
phones. They also provided brown bag sessions for faculty and staff. <http://www.unco.edu/cybersecurity>

We encourage you to attend and submit a presentation proposal for Security 2011: Setting a Course for Collaboration and 
Innovative Solutions (EDUCAUSE Security Professionals Conference < http://net.educause.edu/sec11>). The conference is 
April 4-6, 2011 in San Antonio, Texas and includes a Security Awareness track. The proposal deadline is November 15, 
2010. Many of you are doing exciting things, and our awareness efforts will be more effective as we share our success 
stories and lessons learned. <http://net.educause.edu/Program/1026969>

We look forward to meeting many of you at the conference. Keep up the great work!


Cherry Delaney and Ben Woelk
Co-Chairs, Higher Education Information Security Council Awareness & Training Working Group