Cybersecurity Focus: Use a VPN

Art Miller

GlobalProtect is available to all students, faculty and staff at no charge.

When people hear the term virtual private network or VPN, they often believe it's too techy for them, and there is no reason they should use one. But a VPN can secure personal data — whether traveling abroad or using free Wi-Fi at a coffee shop to browse Amazon — by encrypting the tunnel data travels through and routing it through a secure network.

At our campus, GlobalProtect VPN is required for users who need to connect from off-campus to services not in the cloud, such as Remote Lab. GlobalProtect is available to all students, faculty and staff at no charge. If you must use a public network without VPN, make sure it is reputable and refrain from accessing sensitive information, such as Workday.  

GlobalProtect uses Microsoft's Azure secure multi-factor login system. Familiar services such as Office 365, UAConnect and Blackboard also use Azure to process logins. Multi-factor authentication provides increased protection of our data resources.  

Of note, access to your home or non-university printers, network drives, etc., will be blocked while connected to the VPN. This configuration prevents compromised devices located off-campus from harming university networks. 

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a global effort to help everyone stay safe and protected when using technology whenever and however you connect. Simple steps such as storing data securely in OneDrive, avoiding and reporting suspicious messages and keeping software updated can go a long way toward protecting our campus community online. Throughout the month of October, get to know the basics of cybersecurity with the IT Services' Cybersecurity Checklist  and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) resources.