Cornell has designated Wednesday, Oct. 26, as Security Awareness Day, part of National Cyber Security Awareness month in October – an effort to educate all computer users on college and university campuses nationwide.

From 4 to 5:30 p.m. in G10 Biotechnology Building, Steve Schuster, director of information technology (IT) security, will speak to staff, faculty and students about how to best secure their computers and avoid computer security traps. Additional topics include protecting your identity, what it's like to be stuck in network quarantine, the challenges the IT security office is seeing and 12 steps to better online security.

Cornell students have been invited to participate in CIT's Silver Screen Security Challenge video contest, and the entries will be shown at the event. Audience members will have the chance to vote electronically for their favorite videos at the seminar. The winning video will advance to a national security video contest hosted by EDUCAUSE http://www.educause.org.

Door prizes, including memory sticks and an iPod Shuffle, also will be awarded to audience members.

Why should faculty, staff and students care about computer security?

"Because security is everybody's job at Cornell," Schuster said. "We can put all of the security measures in place to protect everybody's data, such as Social Security numbers and grades, and to protect our computers, but at the end of the day, it's the end user who affects the system" through day-to-day-security practices.

What happens if you do nothing?

Your computer could easily become unusable after being attacked by spyware or viruses. You might become the recipient of a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice for illegal file sharing. Your hard drive could be irreparably damaged, and you could lose all of your files. Or you might, as a result of security being compromised, have extremely large network bills.

"Education about electronic security is not yet equal to the financial and personal reliance we place in our information technology," said Tracy Mitrano, director of IT policy. "Our goal with this kind of programming is to enhance that awareness. Learning about citizenship – rising to a higher level of expectation for the sake of the self as well as the community -- is the silver lining in the process and keeps all of our efforts consistent with the university's mission."