Staying safe remotely: for staff

We are currently seeing a significant increase in phishing attacks and with so many people working remotely the impact can be much larger. Be super vigilant and sceptical at this time about any links sent to you by email or text.

Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

• MFA adds another layer of protection to your online accounts beyond the standard username and password and we strongly advise all that all students and staff use it.
• You’ll need to download an app onto your phone for the second layer of authentication.
• Enable or request to reset your MFA settings for your LSE Microsoft 365 account here.

Find out more about Multi-Factor Authentication and downloading the app >>

Get to know phishing warning signs

• Email addresses that don’t match the displayed name.
• Poor spelling and grammar.
• Using fear, intrigue or excitement to get you to act – “click this link or this kitten dies"
• Lack of information or context in the email, perhaps just a ‘click here’ link or a generic attachment with no information.

Not sure if an email is genuine? Send it to phishing@lse.ac.uk and they’ll investigate.

If you’re sharing a computer or other IT at home take particular care to ensure that your work data is only accessible to you.

• Set up password control on shared devices with different accounts for each user. This will mitigate accidental disclosures and deletions.
• Try to avoid storing date on your hard drive and use your OneDrive account instead.
• Encrypt documents by adding a password to them. Use free tool VeraCrypt to do this quickly and easily. 

If you don’t have anti-virus software download it now!

• Windows Defender comes free with Windows 10
• MalwareBytes works well for both Mac and Windows.

Remember! Having it isn’t enough, make sure it’s automatically updating and running regular scans. Installing regular security updates that are released for your operating systems and software is one of the best ways to keep your machine safe. 

• If you are using standard LSE equipment and services, we can provide a degree of protection to secure your date and help you carry on working.
• If you are compromised, fixing an individual machine can be challenging and time-consuming as we’ll need to courier machines out to you.
• We have introduced better monitoring so can spot if your account is compromised often before you even realise yourself. We’ll be in touch in those case as we know it can often be upsetting when this happens.