The higher education sector has been specifically targeted by both state-sponsored and financially-motivated groups in that time, with some highly visible examples of other universities falling victim.

In the UK, this has included recent major incidents at Northumbria and Newcastle Universities, which essentially halted operations for extended periods in the run up to the current academic year.

IT Services have been working hard to reduce the risk of this happening here at Loughborough through tightening our IT security measures and closely monitoring our systems. 

However, given the extremely high level of criminal activity and the risks inherent to remote working, it is more important than ever that we all exercise caution in order to protect our own personal information and prevent University systems from being compromised.

This means remembering a few key points:

• Always be alert for phishing or scam emails that ask for passwords or other personal information
• Never open email attachments unless you know and trust the source
• Don't use your personal email for University business, as we cannot guarantee its security and confidentiality
• If you are using personal devices to work remotely or access University systems, always ensure that the software you are using is up to date - this applies to phones and tablets, as well as PCs and Macs
• If you are using your own computer, ensure you have anti-virus software installed on it; advice on how you can do this for free is available here. If you have downloaded University data onto a personal device or your own cloud storage, please delete that data when you no longer need it.

Some short videos on these topics that you may find helpful are available on the IT Services 'Top Security Tips' page. 

If in doubt or if you have questions, please contact the IT Service Desk at it.services@lboro.ac.uk or 01509 222333.