Butler University launches cybersecurity education for October. Graphic by Emma McLean.
AUBREY MATASOVSKY | STAFF REPORTER | amatasovsky@butler.edu
The Butler Information Technology (IT) department is celebrating Cybersecurity Awareness Month with the launch of a “Cybersecurity Backstage Pass”. The pass — an awareness initiative designed to educate students and staff about cybersecurity risks — includes a new training course, several events and weekly tips about how to protect yourself against cybersecurity risks.
The course consists of a set of training modules delivered through Proofpoint, and is specifically designed to focus on social engineering scams, including phishing, business email compromise and other methods of manipulation to acquire personal information from victims.
An additional resource hub is available through a Canvas course designed by the IT department.
In addition to the course and online education materials, the “Social Engineering: The Art of Exploitation” webinar is being hosted on Oct. 15 and 16. “Seeing Bias: AI, Representation and Responsibility in the Digital Age” on Oct. 20 in Dugan Hall 234, also counts as a Butler Cultural Requirement credit.
First-year computer science major Chelsea Flynn is aware of the risks associated with cybersecurity.
“A lot of people store the majority of their information on the internet, whether they mean to or not,” Flynn said. “A lot of banking is done online, so having a good cybersecurity system like two-factor authentication is very important to keep that information private.”
Butler’s information security analyst Melanie Perez worked directly on the backstage pass for the awareness month, in addition to other outreach and education efforts by the department.
“There’s a lot of personal information that’s stored in our systems [like] private information that’s required for a student to come here,” Perez said. “[Higher education is] targeted more frequently than other organizations. The top target is health care, and then higher education because [we’re] known to hold and house that private information.”
Chief information security officer Wade Javorsky oversees the program with Perez.
“Students are commonly targeted by threat actors because they may be viewed as easy targets,” Javorsky said. “That’s why it’s so critical that students participate in the outreach and training activities that we have provided to them.”
Despite these risks, not many students complete the available IT training.
“Depending on the time of year, [the number of students completing training] can range between five to 15%,” Perez said.
As professional roles become more dependent on technology and electronic communication, the importance of cybersecurity training increases as well. IT at Butler emphasizes the transferability of these skills to multiple careers.
“From a future career standpoint, with the way that technology is going, these kinds of skills are important to have,” Perez said. “I could see employers putting a high importance on those [skills]. I couldn’t stress how important it is to just develop the skills while [they’re] available now, and it will guarantee help in the future.”
