New Security Features to Increase Protection on Campus Accounts

Art Miller

To learn more about how you can protect university data and your account, visit the Cybersecurity Checklist at its.uark.edu.

The university is implementing several security enhancements to further protect sensitive data and improve the security of university accounts and university-owned computers from March 6-8.

Email security tips: Outlook will display a security tip when users receive email from new contacts. Emails from accounts suspected of user impersonation will also display a warning to be cautious.

Calendar details: External (non-UARK) users will not be able to view details on UARK calendars.

Quarantine emails: Messages categorized as "potential spam" or "phishing mail" may be held in a personal quarantined list for review (instead of the Junk folder). Users will receive a notification from quarantine@messaging.microsoft.com when they have quarantined email. Messages can be retrieved for up to 30 days before they are permanently deleted.

Prevent your email from going to quarantine:

• Avoid using non-UARK email services for university business, including correspondence with colleagues at other universities.
• Avoid forwarding email to non-UARK email addresses.  
• Avoid blind copying large groups of people. Learn more about mailing lists.

SharePoint Online: For security purposes, the maximum idle authenticated time will be set to eight hours. The user will see a notification 30 minutes and five minutes before the app logs the user out.  

University-owned computers: New features will be added to university-owned computers that will block potentially unwanted applications (PUAs). These can include unexpected ads and unverified software, including software that tries to evade detection by security products.

Securing sensitive data requires the active participation of everyone. Simple steps like storing data securely in OneDrive, avoiding and reporting suspicious messages and keeping software updated can go a long way toward protecting our campus community. To learn more, visit the Cybersecurity Checklist.   

If you have questions or need assistance, contact your local IT support or the IT Help Desk.