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Tips

Connect to WiFi on campus

Thursday, January 27th, 2022

 

The Wi-Fi network used to connect to the internet access is called eduRoam. Here we explain what it is, how to register and why it is necessary.

What is eduRoam?

eduRoam (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. eduRoam allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to obtain internet connectivity across campus and when visiting other participating institutions by simply opening their laptop.

To connect to eduRoam and start using Wi-Fi on campus follow these steps.

 

Before you leave

Tuesday, November 30th, 2021

The December holiday is almost here and especially this year, we’re all looking forward to escaping for a week or two. But before you leave, there are a few things you can do now to ensure that your return is seamless. Here are a few tips: 

  1. Activate your Out of Office function on your sun.ac.za Outlook mailbox and indicate in the message when you will be available again in case someone needs to contact you. Also, indicate who will be responsible during your time away and add their email address to your Out of Office.
  2. Make sure that your relevant work-related data is accessible for usage by your colleagues while you are away. However, do NOT give your password to colleagues when as this poses a security risk.
  3. If your sun password might expire during your holiday, rather change it before you go. If it expires while you are away you will be locked out of your account and it will cause unnecessary stress to deactivate it in January. 
  4. If you receive a phishing email on your sun account over the holiday and clicked on links or typed in your username and password, your account may be compromised. Immediately change your password at www.sun.ac.za/password and log a service request on the ICT Partner Portal. Your device will then be checked and scanned after the holiday. Remember that you can also report spam directly to Microsoft by using the handy Report Message function in Outlook.
  5. Information Technology will also be closing, like the rest of the University, on 24 December and opening again on 3 January. If possible, please log your IT requests as soon as possible before you leave. If you have a critical problem, it might be difficult to assist you a day before you leave or on the last Friday since suppliers also close over the festive season.

How to make a screen snip

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and even in the IT environment this is true. How often have you tried to describe a problem you have with your device to an IT technician, struggling to explain it over the phone or in an email.

There is an easier way and it’s called a screen shot, screen grab or screen snip. Many of us use this regularly on our cell phones to share images with friends or family, but it can be particularly useful if you want to show an IT technician an error message or what you are seeing on your screen. If you log a request on our ICT Partner Portal adding a screen shot makes the world of difference. A technician can immediately see the error message and start troubleshooting your problem.

So, how do you make a screenshot? One of two ways:

  1. In Windows 10 you can press the Shift+Windows button+S and it will open the Snip & Sketch option for you.
  2. You can type Snip & Sketch in your search bar (bottom left next to the Windows icon)

For a full explanation of how this handy tool works, the crew over at ZDNet explains it step by step.

So next time you log a request for our technicians, why not try out the Snip & Sketch tool? After all, it’s better to show, not tell.

[Information provided by George Whitehead]

 

 

Why is cyber security important?

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021

Cyber security is the skill and ability of protecting networks, devices, and data from unlawful access or criminal use and the practice of guaranteeing confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.

Communication, transportation, shopping, and medicine are just some of the things that rely on computers systems and the Internet now. Much of your personal information is stored either on your computer, smartphone, tablet or possibly on someone else’s system. Knowing how to protect the information that you have stored is of high importance not just for an individual but for an organisation and those in it.

Did you know that:

  • As of 2021, there is a ransomware attack every 11 seconds, up from 39 seconds in 20191,2
  • 43% of cyber-attacks target of small businesses, and they have grown 400 percent since the outbreak began

More tips and resources can be found here

The US government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has made a collection of tip sheets available for use. These downloadable PDF documents contain all the information you need to protect yourself from cyber security risks in a convenient, compact format. 

More tips and resources can be found here

[SOURCE:  Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, United States Government

Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Creating strong passwords

Tuesday, October 5th, 2021

Before we pointed out that most people underestimate the importance of having a secure password, and still make the mistake of using simple words and numbers as a password.

Keep in mind that your email and social network accounts contain very personal information about you. You must have a strong password to keep your personal life personal, and not become a victim of identity theft. 

  • Using email or your profile on Facebook, Whatsapp or Google, hackers can and do, extract a huge amount of personal data of your personal “online” life.
  • If you use the same password for multiple online accounts, you run the risk, if this password is hacked, of all your online accounts being compromised.
  • Using a personal name for an online account, the name of the city that you live in, the names of your children or your date of birth, give hackers vital clues for attempting to access your personal data.
  • For an average expert hacker, it is always easy to find passwords that are made up of words from the English vocabulary or other languages, using a basic technique called “brute force” or “dictionary” attacks.

What makes a password safe?

  1. A password at least 8 characters long.
  2. The password does not contain information that is easy to find online, such as the date of birth, the telephone number, your spouse’s name, the name of a pet, or a child’s name.
  3. The password does not contain words found in the dictionary.
  4. The password contains special characters like @ # $% ^ &, and numbers.
  5. The password uses a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters.

A trick that the experts use to create secure passwords:

Think of a phrase and use the first letters of the words in the phrase.

  • For example: “In South Africa, a barbecue is called a Braai!”
  • Take the first letters of each word and the password that is created is ISAabicaB!
  • This will be very difficult to guess, but easy to remember.
  • At this point, you can decide to make your the Google password is ISAabicaB!-G,  and Facebook ISAabicaB!-F and your university account  ISAabicaB!-US and so on.
  • There is already a capital letter and a special character (!), so you just need to add a number to finish off a good password like 9-ISAabicaB!-US (9 could be the month you created the password in – for example)

You will have already made your password a lot more difficult to hack, and it can be a lot of fun to create. 

 

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