From Catherine Dauvergne and Martin Pochurko | How we're keeping your information safe at SFU
This email is sent on behalf of Catherine Dauvergne, vice-president, academic and provost, and Martin Pochurko, vice-president, finance & administration. It has been sent to all faculty and staff.
SFU is committed to protecting the digital information and systems that are critical to teaching, research and university operations.
Cyber-attacks and phishing attempts are on the rise and are becoming more sophisticated. IT Services is working to protect and mitigate cybersecurity risks for SFU. Several initiatives are underway and one of these projects is to equip SFU-managed devices with the latest anti-virus/anti-malware security software called Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). EDR is an integrated endpoint security solution critical to ensuring managed devices are protected from malicious applications and activities.
Benefits of EDR software
EDR detects and prevents malware and potential security breaches by stopping malicious viruses or malware before they can execute.
Impacts
- Applications attempting to do malicious activity, such as a macro in a Word document that attempts to encrypt files on the hard drive, will be stopped.
- EDR software runs in the background of your managed device and if malicious activity is identified, you will receive a pop-up notice. If you see a pop-up notice, simply email ns-help@sfu.ca for support.
- Once installed, users will notice a new green circle icon in the menu on your device.
- EDR monitors application activity, NOT user activity, such as web browsing or contents of files.
Installation
EDR has automatically been installed for all staff devices and rollout for faculty devices will be complete by April 2022.
To learn more about SFU Managed Devices and EDR, please visit https://www.sfu.ca/information-systems/services/managed-devices.html.
Thank you,
Dr. Catherine Dauvergne, QC
Vice-President, Academic and Provost
Martin Pochurko
Vice-President, Finance and Administration