Who would have thought that 2020 would have everyone who can, working and taking classes from home? In a few short weeks we had to find a workspace, navigate chaos at home  and learn a whole new set of skills. In the shuffle, it is easy to have work/school seep into our home life and vice versa.  While it is normal to have this happen occasionally, as a general rule you should make sure you are using your email accounts appropriately. Here are a couple of tips that will help you sort through the work/school/home mess.

Use your MRU email only for work/school purposes

While this was a good idea before the pandemic, it is even more important now. Criminals know our home networks don’t have all the security bells and whistles that are on our corporate networks.  Attacks are on the rise as they look for vulnerabilities. One of those is using your MRU email for personal purposes.

The more places you use your MRU email address the greater the chances you are going to reuse passwords and expose yourself to credential stuffing. As we are notified when your MRU email address has been used for a login credential of a breached account provider, we sometimes find out more about your personal life than we would like.  Save us both the risk and embarrassment. If an account is for personal use, use your personal email address for your username.

Don’t use your personal email address for work/school

Since we have begun working at home, it feels like I have responded to 55.1 requests to view Google documents. The requests have come for quick reference guides, user manuals, registration forms, you name it. Every time I have had to reply with…

This document is only viewable by those with a Mount Royal email address. Please login to your Mount Royal email to access the document.

It gets mighty tiresome. I don’t know who the requester is unless they use their Mount Royal email address.  For that reason, I do not grant non MRU email addresses access to documents. Everyone on campus should be following this protocol.

As important as it is to use your work email address to access documents, it is even more important for attending Google Meetings. Don’t make your meeting host guess who you are or whether you should be attending. Make it clear you are supposed to be participating by using your Mount Royal email address.

When you must use your MRU email address

To access some accounts, you must use your Mount Royal email address as a username. In these instances it is especially important to use a unique password.  It prevents criminals from gaining access to your email by using a password that they have stolen from another account provider.

By following these simple rules you will decrease your vulnerability to cyberattacks, protect your privacy and make your colleagues, instructors and students lives easier. Happy days for everyone!