A new training course is now available to assist the university community with the safe and secure management of the university’s digital infrastructure and assets.

“We strongly encourage all staff, faculty and students to take this course,” says Bo Wandschneider, Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice-Principal (Information Technology Services). “The course will help Queen’s community members follow safe computing best practices, which are vital for the prevention of security incidents.”

The course highlights information security best practices on a variety of subjects ranging from using strong passwords to recognizing phishing attacks. Queen’s and other members of the Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers developed the course in partnership with Toronto-based information security company Sentry Metrics.

Users can access the Moodle-based Information Security Awareness Training by logging in with their NetID. The version of the course for staff, faculty and students provides a high-level view of the types of security issues they should be aware of and outlines some tips to keep their resources and data safe. Management and IT staff can access a version of the course that deals more specifically with their roles and responsibilities as related to information security.

The new course is one part of the university’s ongoing effort to preserve the integrity and reliability of Queen’s IT infrastructure and the confidentiality of valuable or sensitive information. The university adopted earlier this year an Electronic Information Security Policy Framework that clearly outlines the responsibilities of staff, faculty and students. The three individual policies within the framework are supported by standards and guidelines that tell people what they need to do to manage the various threat risks the university faces.

More information is available on the ITS website