IT Security Updates for Working Remotely

Dear Colleagues,

In these unparalleled times, it is important that we maintain a secure work environment, whether that be on campus or working safer at home.  Below you will find two important updates to ensure we remain secure and diligent about information security threats.

External Email Notification Helps Identify Potential Phishing Attempts

Starting May 28, DoIT will introduce a new feature in our email system that will notify our faculty and staff of emails originating from outside of the University. This change is being made to make it easier to identify phishing emails and help prevent phishing attacks against faculty and staff.  This banner will also serve as a visual reminder that even if the email looks like it is from a known sender, it originated from outside of the University, and it may be a phishing attempt.  The banner will appear in the first line of the body of the email and will include the following message:

Phishing attempts are always malicious.  While many legitimate messages originate from outside of the University, a common technique is spoofing campus email addresses, similar to cuc.du.csulb.edu[@]gmail.com.  The external email notification is intended to inform you when an email is from a non-CSULB campus user account and to help you identify emails from unknown sources.  The external source tag can serve as an additional indicator as you evaluate the authenticity of the message.  If you have any questions about the legitimacy of an email you receive in your campus email account, please forward the email message to alert@csulb.edu.  If you receive an email from a spoofed campus email address, do not engage with the email beyond forwarding it to alert@csulb.edu so that our Information Security team can investigate the issue.

Reminder to Use Campus VPN

For faculty and staff using a University-owned computer while off campus, it is important that you connect via the campus Virtual Private Network (VPN) at least once a week to ensure your computer receives critical security updates. The VPN also provides additional security when you connect to vital campus resources such as campus network file shares (your individual and department files and documents) from off-campus. To use the service, download and install the campus VPN software to your computer.

If you need further information or have questions, please contact the Technology Help Desk at 562-985-4959.

Cuc Du,
Information Security Officer