Security Matters

October 1, 2018 October is national Cyber Security Awareness Month and the Information Technology Services (ITS) division is spreading the word to the University of Toronto (U of T) community. Students, staff and faculty are all invited to join in a number of activities that will help keep you, your data and the university secure. ...

Recent reports including one from 680 News indicate that the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) received more than 10,000 complaints regarding fraud, and 688 people reported being defrauded $2.7 million from malicious people impersonating the CRA. The attacks are very effective because they elicit panic and fear, give the victim very little time to perform tasks, ...

In a large organization like University of Toronto (U of T), information security is everyone’s responsibility. Phishing is a fraudulent act of acquiring sensitive information (usernames, passwords, credit card information and more) through email, phone calls and text messaging. Everyone is responsible for recognizing and reporting these threats. Phishing attempts should be reported quickly because ...

The education and awareness team alongside information security will be ramping up their anti-phishing campaign this summer to target one department/area per month. Read about tips to keep you safe online. If your department is interested in participating and in turn improving their online safety and security, reach out to its.eda@utoronto.ca.

Do you need help recovering your password? Have you ever said or thought: “I can’t remember my password and need it reset.” “I think someone changed my password.” “Someone may be using my account.” Use the UTORid account recovery password reset service found at https://recover.utorid.utoronto.ca. The service will save you time and is efficient. Once ...

On Saturday, May 12th a generation of budding scientists took over St. George Street to celebrate Science Rendezvous, a family-friendly science festival. Information Technology Service’s education and awareness team was there to educate young people about information security through three activities: our pom pom survey, our prize wheel and our web game, “Patch vs the ...

As of July 2018, Google’s Chrome web browser will display non-HTTPS sites as ‘not secure’. This is a victory for the IT security conscious, and users concerned about the privacy of their data. Google has been advocating for webmasters to switch over to the HTTPS protocol, and have been encouraging this by indexing secure pages ...

Congratulations to our meme contest winner, Emma Hastie, whose Kermit the Frog meme made the whole Security Matters team giggle. Stay up to date on new Security Matters contests by following us on Instagram (@uoftcyberaware), Twitter (@uoftcyberaware), and Facebook.

Everyone knows about the ‘lock’ icon on a browser. You select a shortcut or type in a URL in your browser, the page content is displayed, and the lock symbol indicates that the connection between you and the service is encrypted. You can enter a password or bank account information or Amazon purchase and be ...

To die-hard shopping fans Black Friday is a fun and challenging experience: the thrill of beating the crowds to find the best deals, and then the satisfaction of coming home with a haul of discounted gadgets, clothing, jewellery and much more. To others, especially those who hate crowds, Black Friday is an utter nightmare! Cyber ...