The Division of IT has launched the Colorado State University System’s inaugural cybersecurity training series to educate faculty and staff on cyberattack awareness and prevention.

The training, planned to be an annual opportunity, is a self-paced online series that will walk users through several videos with checkpoints through the Litmos platform and can be accessed through the Cybersecurity webpage or going directly to Litmos.

“This is an acknowledgment of the evolution of cyber risk,” said Chief Information Security Officer Steve Lovaas. “It’s been said that attackers don’t break in – they log in. Recent attacks have been focusing much more on gaining access to sensitive data and systems by compromising credentials. The individual is now the primary target for launching a damaging attack.”

Best practices in IT cybersecurity show that educating individuals is the first line of defense in recognizing attempts and preventing attacks. The training covers a variety of topics that every individual should know in order to safeguard our information and is a key part of the IT Strategic Plan to enhance the CSU System’s security profile.

“Our user community is an important part of our CSU-System cybersecurity strategy,” said Brandon Bernier, vice president for information technology and chief information officer. “Our approach has evolved to ensure we are doing everything we can to take care of our users and their devices. This training program is a national best practice that will help us move in that direction.”

While the training is encouraged for all researchers, faculty and staff members, a subset of individuals handling sensitive information are required to complete the program. The Division of IT will issue a separate notice to these individuals, outlining their obligation to finalize the training by Dec. 22, 2023, while the broader CSU community is encouraged to complete it by Jan. 31, 2024.

For more information, please visit the IT Cybersecurity webpage at it.colostate.edu/cybersecurity.