We are well aware of the growing risks of working online – whether it’s at our offices or at home as we’ve been doing recently. The downside of working from home is that it opens opportunities for cyber-attacks and security risks are higher.  You can easily fall prey to these security risks when there are more distractions and concerns than usual while working from home.

To protect our staff and students from security attacks in our current situation, as well as when we return to our offices one day, it is important to implement extra security measures. Information Technology has been researching and testing multi factor authentication or MFA over the past few months as an additional measure to protect personal information and data. Read more about MFA here or watch the explanatory video by tech expert Tom Scott.

In short, this will mean that, for certain services, you will be prompted to provide more information in order to authenticate your identity as a Stellenbosch University student or staff member. 

By mid-August all staff and students will be required to use multi factor authentication to secure their information and the university network. Although MFA is not mandatory at the moment, you can already enrol by​ following these steps.

If you have any questions first consult our FAQs and if this does not answer your question, please log your request on our ICT Partner Portal and a technician will contact you.

Due to the implementation of stricter laws regarding the protection of data, Information Technology can no longer change passwords on behalf of staff and students. We therefore recommend that you use the online password self-help function. 

However, to successfully use this function, your cell phone number or external email address has to be recorded on the system. Information Technology cannot update this information since our staff are not authorised to work on the HR databases. If you information is incorrect or incomplete, you can update it by doing the following: 

1. Staff and students can update information by signing on at http://www.sun.ac.za/useradm and updating the various fields on the first page. 
2. Staff can contact Human Resources by sending an email to sun-e-hr@sun.ac.za or contact them at 021-8082753.
3. Students can contact Client Services by emailing info@sun.ac.za or contact them at 021-8089111.

More detailed information on the password self-help function.

Stellenbosch University devices are equipped with the necessary software for our staff to perform their work effectively. This includes the latest operating system; all the Microsoft applications (Office 365, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), Adobe Acrobat Professional, TeraTerm and the necessary Antivirus software. Licenses for specialist software can also be purchased through the IT department, will fall under the University’s educational license and therefore be less expensive than a license bought in a personal capacity. These include Adobe Creative Cloud; MatLab and Statistica, among others.

Installing and using this software is essential for staff, however some of our staff use their SU devices for their own personal use and subsequently download and install non-supported as well as illegal software on their PCs.  This includes games and illegal series or movies.

Not only does this put the University’s network at a high risk security-wise, it also puts the University at risk legally. Even if Information Technology does not install the software, we are still being held responsible for it if it’s an SU asset and it runs on our network. 

The fight against illegal software and piracy is mainly fought by the BSA. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) confronts companies that use or distribute illegal
software. Read BSA’s statement on illegal software. 

Therefore we kindly request that you ensure that if you install software, it’s safe and legal to use. Otherwise it might have implications for you and the University.