LIVE From South College - Cybersecurity & Warnings with CIO Jeremy Underwood & Safer Shopping

In this episode, Kathleen Stockham and Jeremy Underwood discuss the critical importance of cybersecurity, especially in educational institutions. They explore the rising threats of phishing, ransomware, and identity theft, and provide practical tips for protecting personal and institutional data. Jeremy emphasizes the need for strong, unique passwords, multi-factor authentication, and regular software updates. They also discuss the growing need for cybersecurity professionals and the role of education in preparing students for these challenges. In addition, Kathleen covers key tips and watch-outs for safer Online Shopping. Be careful before you submit that cell number or email for a discount!

Keywords

cybersecurity, phishing, ransomware, identity theft, multi-factor authentication, data protection, cybersecurity education, South College, Jeremy Underwood, Kathleen Stockham, Safer online Shopping, online scams,

Takeaways

• Cybersecurity is foundational to protecting personal and academic data.
• Phishing attacks are becoming more sophisticated and realistic.
• Ransomware not only locks systems but also threatens data theft.
• Education is a top target for cyber attacks due to diverse systems and users.
• Strong, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication are essential.
• Regular software updates are crucial for security.
• Public Wi-Fi can be a risk for data theft.
• Educating family members about scams is important.
• Cybersecurity is a growing field with increasing job opportunities.
• AI is being used by attackers to craft smarter phishing emails.

Title Options

• The Rising Threat of Cybersecurity in Education
• Protecting Data: Tips from a Cybersecurity Expert
• Why Cybersecurity Matters More Than Ever
• Cybersecurity 101: Safeguarding Your Digital Life
• The Role of Education in Cybersecurity
• Jeremy Underwood on Cybersecurity Challenges
• How to Spot and Avoid Phishing Scams
• The Importance of Strong Passwords and MFA
• Cybersecurity Careers: Opportunities and Challenges
• AI and Cybersecurity: A Double-Edged Sword

Sound bites

• Cybersecurity is foundational.
• Phishing attacks are on the rise.
• Ransomware threatens data theft.
• Education is a top target.
• Use strong, unique passwords.
• Regular updates are crucial.
• Avoid public Wi-Fi risks.
• Educate family about scams.
• Cybersecurity jobs are growing.
• AI crafts smarter phishing emails.

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Transcript

TRANSCRIPT – Cybersecurity & Warnings with CIO, Jeremy Underwood & Safer Shopping

Kathleen Stockham (00:28)

Welcome to the Live From South College podcast. I'm your host, Kathleen Stockham. The Live From South College podcast is your source for all South College activity, including new student information, deep dives into our 100 plus programs and concentration, tools of the trade, and even live on location from all of our campuses. Great interviews with faculty and staff, deans, and hear from South College students and alumni in their own words.

from certificates all the way to doctoral degrees catch up with live from South College for the lighter side of helping your dreams find direction. This is a very important topic for all of our students and honestly any member of the public who has a phone, cell phone, computer, laptop, smart TV, email

and any other connection device that you use for your daily life. There has been a rising tide and growing threat of bad actors looking to capitalize on everyone to gather as much personal information as they can to steal from you, impersonate you, profit from you, and even destroy you and your family. Cyber crimes have continued to rise and even with the sophistication of tools,

and software meant to protect and help you. Even our students and staff are always in the possible crosshairs of cyber criminals looking to strike. As a way to help you navigate these times, my guest today sits at the forefront of this work for South College. It is my pleasure to welcome Chief Information Officer for South College, Jeremy Underwood, to the podcast to help you make things a little safer for yourself and your family.

Hey Jeremy!

Jeremy Underwood (02:12)

Hi Kathleen, thank you so much. What an amazing introduction there and just a great preview toward our topic today in cybersecurity. So really looking forward to this discussion.

Kathleen Stockham (02:21)

Yay. All right, well, let's get started on this very important topic. Cybersecurity is becoming an increasing threat and concern and can certainly impact our students. I am hoping that we can help them today. So why is cybersecurity so important to understand for our students?

Jeremy Underwood (02:39)

Kathleen, cybersecurity, it isn't just about protecting South College. It's about protecting, or the students protecting, their identity and even their future. Students today are constantly online, applying for loans, submitting assignments, they're shopping, they're gaming, and they're sharing all sorts of personal information. Every action leaves a digital footprint. And if they don't understand how to protect themselves, that data can be misused or even stolen. And it's not just an individual impact.

one student falling for a scam on a school network can ripple across the institution. We certainly want for them to protect themselves and to help protect South College.

Kathleen Stockham (03:18)

Yeah, I mean, it's amazing

because what we thought was kind of security concerns, even as late as maybe four five years ago, are completely different today. So tell us what exactly is ransomware and how do you avoid it?

Jeremy Underwood (03:23)

Ransomware is when a hacker locks your files or your device and demands money to give you back access. You can kind of think of it like if someone puts a digital lock on your laptop and says, you know, pay me $500, you're going to lose all your homework assignments, your photos, your access to everything. It's actually an extremely growing concern. And with AI, we've got ransomware 2.0 and ransomware 3.0 to where there's many different versions of this.

There's also ransomware as a service to where someone with lower technical ability can actually buy a ransomware application and can start deploying it. And so it's a really very difficult time to prevent. And so I really encourage students to never click on suspicious links and definitely never download any unknown files. They need to keep their software and antivirus up to date and always back up your important files regularly.

Kathleen Stockham (04:33)

my goodness. I think I just want to go back to rotary phones. This is crazy. You know, we've seen an increase in attacks and we're all consumers, me, you, all of us are all consumers. Can you list a few of the examples of what students could be facing right now?

Jeremy Underwood (04:37)

Yeah, absolutely. they're very real threats and very real targets to students today. Phishing emails, which has been around for quite a few years at this point, they're always going to be a very top threat. Fake job offers are very common. Our students get inundated sometimes with different job opportunities at South College or from some sort of recruiter or some sort of

Promises so if it looks fake, know, or if you have a question about it Definitely do not click the link. Don't send any of your information there's all sorts of scholarship scams right now going on and a lot of social media hijacking attackers are getting access to Instagram or tik-tok or Any of these social media outlets through fake login pages and so if you're using a password and this is one thing that

really cannot emphasize enough to not use the same password on different social media platforms and definitely not your student accounts or any financial accounts. If you have access or access is compromised to any one of those, they all can be compromised. And at that point, if your South College accounts gets compromised, we start seeing a lot of different and interesting activity on our platforms.

Some students have probably been aware and they've seen WhatsApp study groups and Discord study groups that don't appear to be from another student. That's been from, generally speaking, a compromised student account. we're working diligently on eliminating those, but it definitely takes all of us.

Kathleen Stockham (06:23)

goodness. I think I just want to go hide. So let's talk about identity theft because I think we it's either happened to us or we know someone that it's happened to. And identity theft is a very scary situation to be in. And, if you haven't been exposed to it or had it happen to you, count yourself lucky. Any advice on how to avoid identity theft?

Jeremy Underwood (06:26)

I understand.

Yeah, absolutely Kathleen identity theft. a very real threat today and it can actually derail you know from a student perspective derail their credit before it even gets started. You know from a student's perspective I would give some top-level advice to always use unique and strong passwords. That's I think very important as I mentioned earlier to use a different unique password for every account. I know that's a burden.

But it definitely can save you a lot of headache later on especially if you're the victim of it Kennedy theft Turn on multifactor authentication always we utilize the multi-factor authentication here at South You can utilize it for probably every one of the social media apps your bank all those things you can use multifactor authentication I Strongly encourage us to do that and then be cautious about over sharing on social media. There's a lot of these questions from

you know, password verifications that you can get from just looking at somebody's social media, like from birthdays to their school, whether that's a high school or middle school or even their pet's names. And it can help these hackers guess security questions.

And I also encourage students to monitor your credit. There's a lot of free tools out there that can alert you if your info does show up in a breach. And don't share personal information over email or texting. A lot of people would encourage you to make sure that you know 100 % that who you're talking to is that person you know them. But I would just encourage to never share personal information over email or text.

I think it's really important that you should understand that those are not as private as sometimes we assume that they are.

Kathleen Stockham (08:25)

goodness. So it's amazing. The password piece is really, really important. And I'll share a tip with everybody. Years ago, I worked for a very large company and our passwords had to be at least 25 characters. And in those 25 characters, I strongly recommend that you use something that you can remember, like song lyrics.

Song lyrics are a really great way to have a long password that most people can't guess. If you have song lyrics that may even have a number somewhere, in the lyrics even better. But if you're struggling to come up with a really complicated

password that you can definitely remember, but most importantly to Jeremy's point that you, want to make sure no one can guess. I strongly recommend song lyrics. Just a little tip out there for everybody. So what can students do to protect themselves and their families from increased risk at home and online? And what I mean more specifically is a lot of homes have devices. There are certain devices that are connected to e-commerce sites. You speak into the speaker.

It orders things for you. have obviously smart televisions that are listening to you. So give us some advice on how to protect yourself at home with your family on this topic.

Jeremy Underwood (09:43)

Absolutely. And thank you for the pro tip there, Kathleen. I totally agree with using song lyrics to give you a longer, more complex password. So that's definitely a great tip for students to use. But I would say think before you click. If it looks off, it probably is. Always question things. I think it's easier to assume that it's a scam and then prove that it's real. I think it's a very

a good way of looking at, especially email. We all get these text messaging right now. I think everybody in my family's received text messages from some DMV at a state we haven't been in in a while threatening that they're going to lock them up or whatever else unless they pay this fine. Well, clearly you can quickly look at those and determine that they're fake, even though they're well written. A lot of times you'll see a country code that's not even from the US.

Obviously the state of Florida isn't gonna be sending you a text message from Nigeria. So that's not gonna happen. So think about those things and question always. Using multi-factor authentication, there it is again, continue to bring it up, using on everything, email, banking, social media, school accounts, clearly all those things. Keep all your devices up to date. I know this is...

One

of those things that everybody gets annoyed by and it's like, just want to keep delaying that annoying device update. But those, they fix real security issues. And even as you mentioned, your appliances, those need to be updated as well. If you're going to put those on the network, understand what access it has to, what access that that device has, whether it's a smart TV or your oven or your washer and dryer.

very amazing things that they can do by notifying you that your laundry's done, but also they can open up some security holes in your house. So keep those secure. Avoid using public wifi if you can. A lot of people, students especially using those coffee house wifi, if it's not secure, people can actually steal your data from that connection. So make sure that you're connecting to

Secure Wi-Fi, and in many cases, just don't even use public Wi-Fi if you don't have to. And then also talk to your family about scams. You mentioned families. They're targeting your parents, your grandparents, and some of our students have your children. If they're getting the age where they're having devices, educate them on the threats out there because there are very real threats that are attacking at every age level now.

Kathleen Stockham (12:09)

really good point. And back to your point earlier about what you share on social media. Several weeks ago, I got a text message from a number I did not know. And it said, and said it was my son. They used his correct name and said, I'm using a friend's phone. I'm in trouble. I need you to send me $100. Don't tell dad.

And I looked at the text message and I thought about it and I thought about it. And for some reason, it just didn't sound like my son. But, you know, I wanted to double check. And so the only thing I could do was ask a question that I knew that if it was really my son, he would know. And I said, did you feed the dog? Now, here's a tip. We don't have a dog. So I knew that if I asked, did you feed the dog, if it was really my son, he'd be like, what?

But the person answered and said, yes, I fed him this morning. And that's when I knew that this was a fake text. But they knew my son's name. And they also said, don't tell dad. So again, they get very, very sophisticated. And again, it's easy to troll and figure out somebody's name and their family. And I think we've all received fake phishing emails. I know I certainly get them. I laugh at them. I delete them. And definitely fake text, like I just mentioned, with links.

What happens if you click one of those links? What do you give up?

Jeremy Underwood (13:33)

Well, if you click a link, you could be given away your login credentials. A lot of times that's what they're after is it takes you to a middle page that actually has you re-authenticate. And a lot of times it's very transparent to the user. You're just logging in to Microsoft or whatever device you normally would be, and they're able to steal those credentials in the middle. So you could be given away your logging credentials. You could be given away access to your email, cloud storage.

your iCloud accounts, I know students want to protect those. I mean, all these things you can be given away if you click on a fake email or a link there. Your contact list, that's a big area where they, where attackers like to get. They want to get your contact list so that they now can use that contact list to attack others. Such as your example with your son there. It's like, okay, I'm going to send Kathleen's, contacts and I know Kathleen, I know who she is. I know a little bit about her.

And so they can even control your device or your camera. There's so many things that can be done. And then the worst thing is if nothing happens right away. That's way worse because they lie and they wait silently gathering your data. And that's one of the biggest things that's a fear from a corporate stance is that an attacker is going to...

actually compromise our environment and just going to sit there and collect data. That's what Columbia University just experienced within the last couple of months. They had an attacker come in and they sat there and they exfiltrated 460 gigs of sensitive data. Incredible, 2.5 million students and faculty records. And so one of the largest

breaches in US history and all because the hacker chose to not identify themselves early on and they just lied and they wait.

Kathleen Stockham (15:18)

my goodness, my goodness, gosh. So, I know it seems dire, but looking ahead, do you see this threat continuing to grow or stabilize based on what you know now?

Jeremy Underwood (15:30)

You know Kathleen, unfortunately it's growing. There's no question about it. I don't want to the one to, know, overshadow. I don't know, be the one to strike fear into everyone, but we all need to take cybersecurity very seriously, especially with AI being used by attackers to craft smarter phishing emails. There's deep fakes now, which we haven't even got into. Voice impersonations, which is incredible. The way that they can take

30 seconds of recorded voice. And I don't know if you've seen the Joe Rogan podcast, but some of his voice and they're able to make podcasts on anything they choose to make. And it sounds very, very real. The tools used to protect us, they're getting better, but so are the tools used by the bad actors to attack us. So that's why we have to stay vigilant. Cyber security is no longer optional. It's a part of our digital life.

Kathleen Stockham (16:00)

my goodness, like death in taxes. Good Lord. All right, so let's change gears a little bit. So South College offers a Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity. And while you're not an instructor, do you think that there is a need for these professionals after they graduate? I think I know the answer to this.

Jeremy Underwood (16:23)

Exactly,

Yeah, I love that we're offering the bachelors of science in cybersecurity now. We absolutely need more professionals in this space. Every business, school, and hospital is now a digital organization, and that means they're at risk. We don't have enough skilled people to defend these systems, so graduates with hands-on cybersecurity training will have job opportunities, real impact, and a mission. It's one of the most important and fastest growing fields today.

Kathleen Stockham (17:04)

Gosh, yeah, it seems here's obviously a growing need for the for more pros in this space and I agree with you. I think the more people we have, I'm hoping that there are solutions in place for the average consumer. So let's change gears yet again. What has been your journey to South College? Obviously you have a lot of responsibility as chief information officer, but how'd you get here?

Jeremy Underwood (17:28)

You know, I joined South College because I'm passionate about meaningful work. I want purposeful work. And there are very few things more meaningful and purposeful than protecting the future of education. I saw the education community as being underserved, just to be honest. And cybersecurity was a large driver in this. I've been in cybersecurity about 20 years. And so my background rooted in, technology leadership and cybersecurity.

I've always been drawn to roles where I can bridge the strategy, the operations and innovation. And South College really offered that unique opportunity to bring it all together in a mission driven environment. It's a place where I can lead with purpose and make an impact and help shape a secure foundation for students, staff and the broader community, honestly. ⁓

Kathleen Stockham (18:16)

Oh, I love that. Yeah, we started, think, within a few weeks of each other, if memory serves. So hello. Yeah, it's been awesome. So a little pop quiz for you. What kind of student were you in school?

Jeremy Underwood (18:24)

Ooh, kind of soon out of school. Honestly, I don't want to, my kids, it drives them crazy, but I was actually a good student. ⁓ was valedictorian of my high school class. I was a Dean's List guy all the way through college. I think I had one semester in my freshman year where I kind of do as well as I should have done. But for the most part, I've been pretty focused on my education.

in my future there. ⁓

Kathleen Stockham (19:00)

Yeah. the kids caftan, your kids have to kind

of look up to that, obviously. So you're at home cracking the whip on grades, right?

Jeremy Underwood (19:08)

Exactly, exactly.

so yeah, sorry, it's the boring answer to that, but it's the truth.

Kathleen Stockham (19:13)

No,

no, no, I figured I figured that I knew that was going to be the answer because I always know when it's going to be maybe a not a great experience because when I ask that question, the person laughs. I've had a couple They just start laughing when I ask what kind of student they were in school. I love it. So you're busy. You're a dad. You have an amazing job. You obviously sit at the helm of everything for technology. But what do you do in your spare time?

Jeremy Underwood (19:27)

Yeah.

That's a good question. You know, I try to stay active. I like to work out a few times a week. It's a great stress reliever for me. And then I spend as much time as I can with my wife and kids. My son's a golfer, so we enjoy playing around or two with him. And my daughters have always been dancers, so that means a lot of Friday nights under the lights and plenty of competitions throughout the year, which I know you know a lot about.

Kathleen Stockham (19:45)

Yes it is.

Jeremy Underwood (20:04)

It's a busy schedule, you know, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Kathleen Stockham (20:07)

I love that. See, that's awesome. That's very well-rounded. All right. Well, that's...

This has been incredibly

helpful for all of us and I hope everyone got a few tips and tricks to stay safe out there for our students. We want you to have a safe and protected environment for yourself and your family. Use these suggestions and tools for yourself and your friends to keep the bad guys from getting your information. I want to thank my guest CIO Jeremy Underwood for being my guest today. ⁓

Jeremy Underwood (20:40)

Thanks Kathleen.

Kathleen Stockham (20:42)

That's awesome. Coming up after the break, a few more tips and tricks for safer online shopping. Stick around. We'll be right back.

[South College Radio Ad Spot]

Kathleen Stockham (22:26)

Welcome back. Before all things South College, I spent 28 years in e-commerce and online shopping for several companies you most definitely have heard of. And trust me when I tell you, I have seen it all as it relates to scams, thefts, and online crimes.

Here are a few tips to hopefully help you shop safe out there. Tip number one, buy from companies you know. It's important. Regardless of how many ads you see or how great the Instagram videos and ads are, double check before you purchase from a company you don't know or have not heard of before. Don't just Google the company name and reviews either. Use sites that are trusted.

They are review sites like Trustpilot and Site Jabber. These third party sites allow for candid and detailed reviews for pretty much every e-commerce site there is. And you will see quickly if this website with the great Instagram ads is legitimate or if consumers paid and never got their product. Pay attention to that. It's important. Tip number two.

Have you received an email from a big brand like Lowe's or Home Depot or Costco telling you that you've won a big prize? Chances are it's complete garbage. But here's a tip to know for sure. Open the email and without clicking any links in the body of the email, either highlight or tap the email address it came from. The email address may say Lowe's customer service, but when you tap

The actual email link it says may be bob123xyz at gmail.com. Of course, that's not the Lowe's customer service email address. Make sure you close the email and hit block sender in your email instruction stack and then delete it. Tip number three, received a text message from Amazon letting you know they need you to click a link to verify delivery of a package?

Well, don't click that. Instead, open your Amazon app and see if you have any pending deliveries. The app will absolutely let you know if they need to get in touch with you. Don't see anything? Then just delete the text and report as spam. Tip number four, try and buy from aggregate apps that offer protection for you and your purchases. Instead of a trial by fire buying from a store you don't know,

Use an aggregate app that has many stores under their roof, such as the Shop app, which aggregates all Shopify commerce stores, or Etsy, which also aggregates under one roof. Credit card affiliate sites, such as Capital One Shopping, which protects you and your credit card from bad actors. You can also buy from affiliate sites like Rakuten that keep all e-commerce stores under one roof.

and you get cash back the more you shop. That's pretty awesome. The best news is that when a retailer does not ship or provide you the product you purchased, the app you use will likely go after them and in most cases and more often than not will refund you and go after the retailer. Either way, you're protected. Also read carefully about return policies. If it's a no returns or final sale,

then maybe it's best to hold off. Tip number five, a lot of brands will tempt you with percent off or dollars off if you provide your cell number or your email.

Think carefully about that move as well, as what the store is asking for is your information. Again, if it's a brand you know or a site you trust, then it's, well, your decision. However, if it's a brand you don't know or you're truly, quote, new to them,

Think carefully about giving up that information to them because in tiny print somewhere is a disclaimer that you are willingly opting in to provide that information and now they can use it. You also lose some control over where that information may go along with your name, address, credit card number, and possibly more. Remember, a digital footprint is forever, so treat your cell number

and your email address like sacred property, like a social security number. And one more thing, do yourself a favor, create a junk email address where you opt in for stores and other sites and not use your business or key personal address. By using a junk email address, it does become slightly harder to compromise your info that you're likely to use for rent or mortgage payments or any official business. Well,

That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed all of this key information to stay safe out there. We are always here to help you and we're always looking out for you. With 10 campuses across seven states plus online and CBE, there's a pathway for you at South College. Hope you enjoyed this latest episode of Live from South College. Thanks for joining me. If you love it, give it some stars and you can always send us feedback by emailing us at southcollegepodcast.

Have an awesome day and let your dreams find direction. Stay safe out there and see you next time.