It is that time of the year again.  Time to say goodbye to last year’s training and say hello to a brand new year of cybersecurity fun.  The training for new hires is now live and new employees are being enrolled automatically every Monday as they were last year. However, the rest of the program does have a few changes.

First, training for current employees won’t be launched until August 15 when faculty returns to campus. This does shorten the time that is available to complete the training. However, now notifications won’t be going out to people who aren’t here.

Second, contractors are now required to take training as well as employees. We decided to expand the cybersecurity awareness program as last year we experienced  a cybersecurity incident that originated with a contractor.

Third, the training completion due date for current employees is now June 15. New hires will continue to have 60 days to complete their cybersecurity awareness training and 30 days to complete their PCI awareness training.   By moving the deadline ahead two weeks, faculty will no longer be getting reminders when they are not on campus and it will be easier to meet our PCI compliance requirements.

Lastly, all our training content this year has been approved by the EDI office. Previously only our Cyber Guys videos were reviewed.  This change ensures that all our content falls in line with the University’s strategic direction to strengthen diverse communities.

The rest of the training program remains unchanged. Current employees can still test out of training. As well, our monthly Cyber Guys videos will continue to deliver giggles every month starting in October.

We hope these changes make the program more effective and less onerous.  We welcome your feedback on the changes or any other aspect of the program. With your input, we can continue to improve ensuring the program helps the entire campus stay cybersafe.