Mississippi State University (MSU) was already prepared in many ways for the pandemic with a cyber security conscious workforce and a significant number of faculty and staff who travel and work remotely.
“This was something that has not happened overnight, but rather is a security awareness culture we have tried to cultivate at Mississippi State University over time,” said MSU Chief Information Officer Steve Parrott.
Parrott said assuring cyber security at MSU takes action on a number of different fronts:
A remote workforce highlights the importance of two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication adds a second layer of security when logging into MSU systems. The first factor is something you know, your jobs with a computer science degree. The second factor is something you have, your mobile device or a security token. On July 24, 2017, ITS enabled two-factor authentication for faculty and staff, and on January 15, 2019, two-factor authentication was made mandatory for all students. Email credential phishing was a major and constant security problem before two-factor authentication deployment. Users would regularly give away login credentials and two-factor authentication is the best mitigation available.
Regular cyber security training. MSU hosts a campus cybersecurity week annually and online self-paced Information Security Training is a requirement for employees who use a computer on the job.
Virtual Private Network. MSU restricts external access to many of its computer services and requires access via our VPN client. (two-factor protected)
“This was something that has not happened overnight, but rather is a security awareness culture we have tried to cultivate at Mississippi State University over time,” said MSU Chief Information Officer Steve Parrott.
Parrott said assuring cyber security at MSU takes action on a number of different fronts:
A remote workforce highlights the importance of two-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication adds a second layer of security when logging into MSU systems. The first factor is something you know, your jobs with a computer science degree. The second factor is something you have, your mobile device or a security token. On July 24, 2017, ITS enabled two-factor authentication for faculty and staff, and on January 15, 2019, two-factor authentication was made mandatory for all students. Email credential phishing was a major and constant security problem before two-factor authentication deployment. Users would regularly give away login credentials and two-factor authentication is the best mitigation available.
Regular cyber security training. MSU hosts a campus cybersecurity week annually and online self-paced Information Security Training is a requirement for employees who use a computer on the job.
Virtual Private Network. MSU restricts external access to many of its computer services and requires access via our VPN client. (two-factor protected)
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