Tag: UF Google

What Your Primary Affiliation Means for Digital Access at UF

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The University of Florida’s large and diverse population is comprised of students, faculty, and staff. But there are many other primary roles (known as ‘affiliations’) in our Gator community, and everyone’s affiliation determines what digital services they are entitled to access. Some of these additional primary UF affiliations include emeritus faculty member, consultant, community members who use UF libraries, authorized vendors, and newly admitted students not yet enrolled.

UFIT has an updated webpage showing which affiliations can use the following provisioned services.

UF Email Eligible365 LicenseDropboxGooglePower BI ProZoomVPNEduroam

UFIT maintains the list of primary affiliations for the university. Anyone with questions about their affiliation or the assigned affiliation of a new hire or former employee is encouraged to chat with their department security administrator (DSA).

Clear Your Search Histories

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Did you know your online activity — including the sites you visit, places you view on Google Maps, videos you watch, and more — is tracked and stored? Companies, both legitimate and malicious, use cookies to learn what you do online. How?  Companies keep records of your online activity by using a Third-Party cookie, which links the activity from your browser back to the profile they have of you. From there, your information could become compromised and shared with groups interested in stealing your personal information or compromising your university.

Regularly clearing your cookies can help limit this surveillance because doing so breaks the link that companies rely on to identify you. Clearing cookies is easy! If you use Google Chrome, first open your browser, then → Open the “Options” menu located near the top right corner of the window → Select “More Tools” → Select “Clear Browsing Data” → To delete everything select “All Time” → and then “Clear Data.” That’s it!  The steps can vary slightly depending on the device and browser used, so visit this page for information on how to clear cookies in your preferred browser.

Learn more ways to keep your personal data private by visiting UF’s Information Security Office website.

Learn How Doxxing Attacks Work

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Recently, news outlets reported threats to a U.S. Supreme Court justice. What began as a social media attack became potentially a physical assault. This type of attack is called “doxxing.” Doxxing is defined as publicly revealing previously private information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet.

Doxxing attacks often focus on a journalist or public figure–like a faculty member–over something they have written. An individual or group opposed to what’s published can severely disrupt the author’s life, and in extreme cases their safety is threatened. Doxxing frequently results in abusive phone calls and text messages, sometimes in conjunction with a social media campaign or series of emails designed to harass and intimidate the writer.

The first step to protecting yourself against doxxing is to find out what information about you is publicly available. Conduct online searches in multiple browsers (e.g., Google, Firefox, Safari) and find out what others can see. Then, request removal of private information you find listed on any website. Also, be careful what you share on social media, especially information that could be used to find you or your family, such as location data in photos or posts. The most important step is to secure all your accounts with strong passwords and multi-factor authentication whenever possible. Visit UF’s Information Security Office “Protect My…” webpage and learn more about keeping personal information private.