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Listen to podcast series: “Understanding and Implementing Cybersecurity”

• Episode 1: Cyber Protection for a Lay Audience

  What steps do you take to safeguard your digital information? Maybe you change your passwords every other month. Turn on two-factor authentication. Keep your Netflix log-in under lock and key. But what about at your workplace? How does your campus protect its information, and what role do you play in successful cybersecurity implementation? Alan Brill, Senior Managing Director in the Cyber Risk practice of Kroll, believes that cyberattack prevention requires collective action across an institution. In this first episode, Alan explains why effective cybersecurity has become more challenging in our interconnected world, and the importance of the university library’s close partnership with the IT department. Plus, Alan offers up his best tips to protect your workplace—number one: trust, but verify.

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• Episode 2: Why Are Universities under (Cyber) Attack?

  In recent years, universities have become target-rich environments for cyberattacks. But why? What do hackers want from academic institutions? According to Alan Brill, Senior Managing Director in the Cyber Risk practice at Kroll, information. Because of universities’ breadth of non-public data and extensive interconnectivity across campus and state networks, institutions have become a hot bed of cybercrime. “Once you understand the scope of the risk, you have to start asking the question: Are we matching our preventive and detective tools to that risk? And if we’re not, why not, and what are we going to do about it?” In this second episode, Alan digs into why proactive measures—rather than reactionary—can help mitigate cyber risk. He explains the threats in and outside of an institution, what a “zero-day attack” is, and why zero-day risks require such immediate alarm and action. Plus, Alan shares his advice on how librarians can prepare for and fend off these attacks—don’t delay updating your software!

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• Episode 3: How to Prepare for and Combat Cyberattacks

  “They try to put guilt on you. They try to make you think it’s your professional responsibility to help them. But the key is: security procedures only work if we use them consistently, and if we’re trained to know that bad actors are going to play on those emotions.” Alan Brill, Senior Managing Director in the Cyber Risk practice at Kroll, understands the ploys hackers use during a cyberattack—and the training needed to combat them. What kind of preparation yields the best security against the growing risk of organized, sophisticated cyberthreats? What’s the librarian’s role in contributing to this cyber-safe campaign?

  In this third episode, Alan listens to a clip from a recent Choice webinar on cyberattacks, reviewing what went right and lessons learned. Alan also walks through the various tricks hackers can pull—dropping in personnel names, making requests appear incredibly urgent—to persuade staff to abandon protocol and grant access. Last, he shares guidance on what both librarians and administrators can do to enforce unified, collective cybersecurity across campus.

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• Episode 4: Balancing Academic Freedom with Information Protection

  Emailing a former professor about research breakthroughs. Downloading copyrighted papers off the internet. Sharing login credentials. Aren’t these all harmless characteristics of academia? Everyday tricks of the scholarly trade? Alan Brill, Senior Managing Director in the Cyber Risk practice at Kroll, warns that seemingly harmless actions or good intentions may lead to serious consequences—can the push toward academic freedom end up endangering our information in the process?

  In this final episode, Alan discusses hackers’ exploitation of free-flowing information. He tackles the issue of Sci-Hub—the controversial website that shares pirated research—and the importance of respecting patents, copyright protection, and trade secrets. Alan also reveals his perspective on emerging threats in cybersecurity, and why cyber risk preparation at a university is so essential in today’s information age. “There is no such thing as 100 percent protection … What we need is a pre-planned incident response program … so that when it happens—and I think the only rational position today is don’t think in terms of if, think in terms of when it happens—you’re going to know what to do.”

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