Staying safe: Tips for personal and cyber safety

TORONTO, Aug. 26, 2013 --- With the start of a new school year, it’s important to remember some simple tips for maintaining personal safety, particularly when on campus in the evenings or during more isolated times. At the same time, back to school is a busy time for students with buying new books and course materials, signing up for courses, and securing student loans. These cyber security tips below will also help students remain vigilant when making a purchase online.

PERSONAL SAFETY ON CAMPUS

• Travel with friends when possible. If you can’t, check to see if campus security provides a service to escort you safely to your final destination on campus. For example, Ryerson offers a Walk Safe program where security staff is available to bring you to your car, the closest TTC station or anywhere on campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  
• Program the campus security’s phone number into your smart phone so you always have it.
  
• University and college campus also have emergency medical responders (EMRs) on duty.
  
• Call campus security if you are being harassed or feel afraid for your safety. If even something doesn’t feel right, it’s better to contact a security officer to be on the safe side.
  
• Some universities may send out notifications to the students on a security incident. At Ryerson, an email is sent out to every person with a Ryerson email address when there is an incident on campus to alert the community.
  
• Campus security services at universities and colleges may also offer safety courses so be sure to check out your university or college website for upcoming workshops.
  

SOCIAL MEDIA and MOBILE SECURITY

• Treat all the information you post as if it were public. Never assume it is private or protected.
  
• Do not use any information that you post on social media as a password or an answer to an identity-confirmation question. Criminals will collect information about you from social media and try to use it to hack into your bank and credit card accounts.
  
• Mobile devices are easily lost or stolen. Protect yourself by installing a remote-wiping app, by encrypting your device or at the very least by password-protecting it.
  
• Beware of free or tempting apps that appear to offer great value at no cost. These can be used by criminals to skim your information off your mobile device.
  
• Even legitimate apps collect more information than necessary and have weak security that can be exploited by criminals. Keep the apps you use and download to a minimum, and delete apps you no longer use.

ONLINE FINANCIAL SECURITY

• Verify your bank’s website offline, through a brochure, or by talking to customer service.
  
• Most banks offer free software to enhance your security. Take advantage of it, download it and install it on your mobile device.
  
• Have a banking password that is different from all your other passwords. It is easier for criminals when you just have one password.
  
• Never reply to, or click on a link in, an email that appears to be from your bank and asks for your username and/or password - this is “phishing”, an attempt to deceive you and get your information.
  
• When in doubt about online communication – call the bank or walk into a branch to confirm.
  
• Never bank online from a public computer such as a computer lab or library computer. Your information remains available to anyone that uses the computer after you.
  
• If your browser supports it (and most new browsers do), launch a “private” browsing session when you bank, so that no personal information will be kept on your computer.
  
• Never bank online from your mobile device when you are using a wi-fi hotspot or other public network. Criminals can easily collect the information you transmit.

FACULTY EXPERT AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON CAMPUS SAFETY:
Contact Suelan Toye, Public Affairs.

FACULTY EXPERT AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON CYBER SECURITY:
Avner Levin
Director, Privacy and Cyber Crime Institute
Chair, Law and Business
Associate Professor, Ted Rogers School of Management
Office: 416-979-5000 x7690
avner.levin@ryerson.ca
* Available after Aug. 28


MEDIA CONTACT:
Suelan Toye
Public Affairs | Ryerson University
Office: 416-979-5000 x.7161 | stoye@ryerson.ca

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