Technology Services staff Cindy McKendall and Sandy Delaney are charged with providing cybersecurity training to University of Illinois staff and faculty on a quarterly basis, so that individuals can understand how their actions can help keep university data and systems safe from cyber threats. In the past two years, they also have engaged with several university-affiliated groups to provide more individualized training.
This spring, these staff members taught a course through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
Members urged OLLI director Kathryn Williams to invite them to submit a proposal to reprise the cybersecurity essentials course they offered the previous year. They were happy to share cybersecurity and privacy tips and strategies with nearly 20 OLLI participants.
The OLLI course covered a range of topics from cybersecurity basics like using longer and unique passwords to phishing and multifactor authentication.
McKendall noted that this year’s class was especially interested in privacy topics.
“We talked about cookies, what cookies are, and how they can impact your browsing experiences. I showed examples of cookie banners and how to turn off non-essential cookie banners,’’ she said.
Delaney said that the students were a very eager and engaged audience. “I feel like I have to be on the top of my game for this group. They have great questions and I want to anticipate and stay ahead of them.”
To cap off the series during the final class, small groups worked together on a cybersecurity escape room – a paper-based exercise where they were challenged to use what they learned in the course along with logic and puzzle-solving skills to “save the barnyard.” With a series of clues, they worked to discover who had used stolen digital credentials, who was digitally impersonating real individuals and more.
McKendall enjoys offering the escape room exercise to groups ranging from high school students to staff and now this audience. “It is a different way to reinforce the learning,” she said.
Participant Larry Orndoff, whose career also included training and teaching adults, praised the series of classes.
“This team is right up there with the best, most professional, and patient adult trainers I have been around.”
Technology Services’ online cybersecurity training is provided to all staff at Illinois and UIS, and optional self-directed cybersecurity courses are also available to students.
To learn more about cybersecurity training and how to reach out for special group training, visit the Technology Services website.