This October marks the 20th Cybersecurity Awareness Month and the month is dedicated to ensuring everyone has the resources to stay safe and secure online.
The public and private sectors continue to come together to secure technology, protect critical infrastructure and bridge the cybersecurity careers gap.
According to Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, about 47% of American adults have had personal data exposed by cyber criminals. And with 2023 bringing an all-time-high for the average cost of a data breach—$4.45 million—more than half of organizations are investing more in cybersecurity infrastructure, IBM reports.
The National Security Alliance recommends consumers use these behaviors to stay safe:
Using strong passwords and a password manager
Turning on multi-factor authentication
Recognizing and reporting phishing
Updating software
Alamo Colleges is also doing its role to inform employees. It recently released the Alamo College’s IT Security Awareness Training 2023-2024 in Alamo Talent as an effort to inform our employees of their role in CyberSecurity
Alamo Colleges Email Moving to Office365 Cloud
Microsoft Outlook migration to Microsoft 365 Suite with Single Sign-On (SSO) will make life easier for Alamo Colleges and Northwest Vista College employees. The new Office365 Office Suite will be upgraded on all employee desktops and laptops. The email migration process will move all employee email to the cloud and will start on Oct. 16 through Oct. 27. 2023.
Office 365 gives you access to applications such as PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Teams, and OneDrive. Employees can install Office365 on up to 5 PCs, laptops, or mobile devices.
Faculty and staff can use Teams and OneDrive on a daily basis to manage projects and communication within their team or classroom. Here are some links to help understand the transition.
Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication method that allows users to sign in using one set of credentials to multiple independent software systems. Employees and students will authenticate through ACES when accessing Microsoft 365.
The Office365 outlook and email migration will start in October. Some of the benefits from this migration to Microsoft 365 Outlook include:
100GB mailbox storage
More mobility across devices
Increased security including a phishing button to easily report spam items
Calendar integration
Collaboration with Teams and other 365 applications