Greetings!
As we settle into this hybrid semester and continue to find new ways of collaborating with each other to serve the WCU community, one important technology topic has remained at the top of my mind: cyber security. While deeply important in an average semester, security is even more critical to delivering user-centric tools and technology to our community in our increasingly virtual world. The COVID-19 pandemic has not slowed down cybercriminals and other threat actors. If anything, the resulting move to remote work and study has often left users and computers more vulnerable. Phishing, ransomware, and other attacks continue to rise, with universities, school districts, government, and health care becoming increasingly targeted. To help deal with this, WCU’s IS&T teams have expanded several initiatives like VPN services, rollout of Duo multi-factor authentication, trainings from Knowbe4 with IT security and privacy tips, Zoom for Healthcare, Sophos Anti-Virus update, etc.
The pandemic drove us to rapidly refine processes that had once been considered sacrosanct. Although not all ideas were practical or readily scalable, we learned to accelerate the adoption of new technologies for instruction and services. We must now sustain these advancements in the new normal.
I hope you have a restful Thanksgiving break with your loved ones!
View the Fall 2020 IS&T Newsletter
JT Singh
Senior Associate Vice President and Chief Information Officer