Staff online security training

All LJMU staff are expected to complete periodic security awareness and privacy training.

The training is intended to be brief, engaging and interactive. We believe this is necessary, as cybercrime is a rapidly growing problem for all businesses, including universities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced universities to make drastic changes to support remote staff and students. Cybercriminals have sought to capitalise on this rapid change by abusing remote access technologies to launch devastating ransomware attacks against several UK universities.

In every case, these attacks have leveraged stolen credentials, most often obtained through phishing campaigns which trick users into divulging their usernames and passwords.

A recent independent audit of our online environment revealed that 29% of LJMU accounts were using weak passwords - that’s 14,000 users who would be vulnerable to losing their personal data.

Understanding these attacks, and the value your credentials have for a would-be attacker, is the best way to avoid becoming a victim yourself.

Research shows that training is one of the most effective ways of reducing the risk of cyber-attack. The university has therefore invested in an industry-leading security awareness training platform called KnowBe4. This will allow us to deliver bite-sized training on important security topics, such as how to choose a strong password, securing your home network, secure remote working and staying safe online.

Training takes place on a quarterly basis and you need to complete the training each quarter. If you have not already completed the training for this quarter, you must do so as soon as possible. Reminder notifications will be sent to you and to your line manager.

Training compliance is regularly monitored and reported to SG, ELT and the Board of Governors.

You can access your training in any of the following ways:

Go to https://eu.knowbe4.com/ui/login
On an LJMU managed PC, open AppPlayer and search for KnowBe4
Go the the LJMU homepage, search for KnowBe4. Click ‘Staff mandatory eLearning modules’, then follow the link to the KnowBe4 training site.

It should only take around 15-20 minutes.

If you have any questions about our new security awareness training programme, or have any suggestions for training topics you would like us to cover, please let us know. Contact the IT Services helpdesk on x5555.