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Do you ever feel like the guy below? Does your computer ever get filled with viruses and malware that you just want to throw it away? Don't be that guy! Use the internet smartly. Protect our device and privacy.

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Are you an educator and not sure what your students should know? This sources will help you begin with determining what they should know.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Keegan Korf is an advocate for digital citizenship for the Omaha Public Schools community. She offers a compelling story about the importance of digital discretion and self-control.

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Kid, you posted WHAT?! How to raise a digital citizen | Keegan Korf | TEDxOmaha

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Although this is a paid subscription, Express VPN is rated as the number one trusted software for VPN privacy.

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High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service | ExpressVPN

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Top-rated VPN for 2024. Private and secure internet access worldwide, on any device. 24/7 support. Try ExpressVPN for 30 days risk-free.

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You might think that protecting your online privacy is easy, but you'll be surprised what you might find in this article.

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66 Ways to Protect Your Privacy Right Now

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There's plenty you can do to protect your privacy and prevent hackers and intrusive companies from capturing your data. Consumer Reports brings you easy, effective solutions.

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Students enrolled at the California of University, Long Beach, can benefit from tips here.

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These top tips provide the most fundamental and effective methods for protecting your devices from outside threats.

Learn the best practices for email and social media, and protect yourself from common threats like phishing.

Connect to a wealth of information and resources geared toward you as employees, students, and parents.

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These top tips provide the most fundamental and effective methods for protecting your devices from outside threats. Learn the best practices for email and social media, and protect yourself from common threats like phishing. Connect to a wealth of information and resources geared toward you as employees, students, and parents.

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This article, brought to you by MIT, suggests the top ten safe computing tips. Many of these tips may seem obvious, but it is nice to have them outlined in an organized matter.

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Working, teaching, and learning away from the MIT campus poses new risks to securing information. IS&T recommends that community members follow these best practices when engaging in activities remotely to help reduce the chance of the information and data you handle at MIT being compromised.

Protect your devices
Make sure your devices are running newer operating systems supported by the vendor (e.g., Windows 10, macOS Mojave 10.14, or newer) and that all updates have been applied.

Protect your information
When exchanging high risk (i.e. sensitive or personal) information over email (e.g. birth certificates, loan applications), make sure to protect it by encrypting files before sharing.

Secure your home WiFi
Make sure your home router's firmware is up-to date, that you have changed the default password to something strong, and that you have enabled WPA2 encryption for your home WiFi network.

Practice safe video conferencing
Use MIT-approved and licensed enterprise video conferencing tools, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Webex, which offer protections for your security and privacy, and follow suggested best security practices.

Be aware of COVID-19 related scams
There has been an uptick in malicious attacks to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Be wary, in particular, of phishing attacks and also of scams that try to trick you into making donations to fraudulent organizations or causes or revealing sensitive information. Protect yourself and your information by using caution when opening emails and attachments.

IS&T is committed to strengthening the security of MIT's infrastructure and information.
Even computers that don't appear to have any valuable information can be attractive targets for attacks. Compromised computers and other devices can be used as a foothold allowing attackers to spread through the network. Networked devices in MIT's public IP space are constantly under attack from devices across the globe. IS&T provides a variety of security services and software to protect the MIT community.

Protect yourself

Take steps to protect your computing and the information you handle at MIT.

Enable automatic updates for your operating systems and software to protect against the latest security threats.

Install Sophos Anti-Virus and CrowdStrike Falcon. Sophos protects your computer against known viruses, worms, and malware. CrowdStrike provides advanced protection against emerging threats, using machine learning to detect patterns commonly seen in attacks.

Use a password manager such as LastPass to generate and protect strong, unique passwords.

Back up your computers using CrashPlan. This cloud-based backup solution makes it easy to recover data from computers that have been lost, stolen, or damaged by malware.

If you handle personally identifiable information (PII), install Spirion to help you detect and securely encrypt or delete files with sensitive information.

Beware of phishing and other scams

Phishing emails and email scams continue to be an effective way for scammers to steal credentials, install malware, or extort cryptocurrency. Many of these emails are targeted to a specific department or lab, and may appear to come from someone you know or do business with.

If an email looks suspicious, report it to phishing@mit.edu by forwarding the email as an attachment. The IS&T Security team will take steps to protect the community.

Learn more

The Information Protection @ MIT website provides access to policies and guidance on safeguarding information at the Institute. The Awareness I: IT Security and Awareness II: IT Security courses are available in the Atlas Learning Center.

Report an IT security incident

It's important to report any IT security incident as soon as you are aware of it so the Security team can take proper steps to limit the impact and extent of loss, investigate, protect other members of the MIT community, and meet any regulatory or legal requirements.

If you believe a breach of MIT information occurred, immediately report the IT security incident by sending email to security@mit.edu or by submitting the form below. The IS&T Security team will contact you to evaluate the situation and determine the next best step. If necessary, they will assemble the Data Incident Response Team. You should not address these situations on your own, as that may corrupt forensic information needed to determine the scope of the issue and the risks to MIT.

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Take steps to ensure that you are secure when working remotely Working, teaching, and learning away from the MIT campus poses new risks to securing information. IS&T recommends that community members follow these best practices when engaging in activities remotely to help reduce the chance of the information and data you handle at MIT being compromised.

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If you have ever been interested if there was an online course about digital citizenship, here you go. Courses are offered through grades K-12 and is research-supported by thousands of educators.

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.