“single point of failure”<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a design or configuration flaw where a single vulnerability can disrupt an entire ecosystem.<\/p>\n ![\"Canvas](\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\")
<\/p>\n
An email was sent to all university staff and students on May 7. Hackers from the cybercriminal group ShinyHunters threatened to release personal information from an estimated 9,000 other universities, as well as UCF, that used Canvas.<\/p>\n
Claire Macchiarola<\/p>\n
Drake said tens of thousands of individuals log onto the shared network daily using personal devices, creating endless potential entry points for threat actors looking to weaponize society’s growing digital dependence.<\/p>\n
“Attackers like to target institutions that have the heart and mind of a community,” Drake said. “If you think about a college as prominent as UCF, it is the heart and mind of our community.”<\/p>\n
Compounding the issue is a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Cybersecurity graduate student Eram Mahbub said AI has completely changed the game.<\/p>\n
“A good way people would be able to differentiate it before was there would be grammatical errors or spelling errors in these phishing emails,” Mahbub said. “Which, with AI, it\u2019s harder to tell what\u2019s a phishing email and what\u2019s not.”<\/p>\n
While UCF Information Security actively fights back with simulated phishing drills and advanced security tracking tools, experts emphasized the ultimate line of defense relies on individual awareness.<\/p>\n
“You kind of have to be aware of that stuff yourself too, if you don\u2019t want your information to be leaked,” Mahbub said.<\/p>\n
Drake echoed this, urging the community to trust their instincts when navigating their inboxes.<\/p>\n
“If you see something, say something,” Drake said. “Just if you feel that tingle of ‘this might not be real,’ to pause and take action is really important to protect actually the whole.”<\/p>\n
If you suspect an account is compromised, the UCF Security Incident Response Team<\/a> is available 24\/7 to investigate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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