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Information Update: Cyber Month Week 3: Protect your information

Welcome to Week 3 of Cybersecurity Awareness Month at Fleming College! This week, we are focusing on Protecting Your Information.

Simple habits keep your personal data and financial information secure whether you are banking, shopping, filing taxes, or using public networks.

Safe Online Banking and Financial Security

Financial scams rely on phishing (email), vishing (voice calls), and smishing (text messages) to trick you into revealing sensitive account details or financial credentials.

✅ Learn how Canadian financial institutions are helping customers bank on cyber security and spot digital fraud.

✅ Review key tips on how to stay cyber secure when managing sensitive transactions or filing taxes online.

✅ Learn to identify the 7 Red Flags of Phishing to help you identify suspicious emails, texts, and phone calls. 

✅ Learn how you can stay cyber secure when downloading and using apps.

Smart & Confident Online Shopping

Online retail scams often use counterfeit websites, fake ads, or insecure checkout systems to steal payment information. Read Get Cyber Safe’s guides to avoid online shopping scams and shop online with confidence.

✅  How to avoid becoming the victim of an online shopping scam
✅  How to spot an unsafe online store
✅  How to protect your data in an online store

✅ Watch: Protecting Yourself From Identity Theft

Always verify that a website uses secure encryption; the URL/web address should start with https://, before entering credit card details or personal addresses.

Device Security

We get it — there’s nothing more annoying than stopping what you’re doing for a software update.  But trust us, it has its benefits. Staying updated is one of the easiest ways to protect your devices if you remember the most important rule:  TURN AUTOMATIC UPDATES ON! Antivirus software is still one of the best ways to secure yourself against cyber threats.
✅ Keep your software up to date.
✅ Learn how to: Secure your smart devices.

✅ Choose antivirus software that works for you.

✅ Enable the local firewall for Windows or macOS.

Public Wi-Fi Risks

Unsecured public Wi-Fi networks allow local network traffic snooping. Taking basic steps to secure your connection protects your personal data from interception.

✅ Only Use Trusted Networks: Avoid logging into sensitive banking or college accounts on public or untrusted Wi-Fi services. Use your phone’s personal hotspot or a personal Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection instead.

✅ Use Fleming’s virtual private network (VPN) to secure your connection to Fleming College resources!

✅ Maintain Antivirus Protection: Ensure your personal devices run active antivirus/antimalware software and keep it up to date.

Get Involved & Win

Prize Alert 🎁 Take a screenshot showing you have antivirus software installed on your device. Email it to cyber-month@flemingcollege.ca for your chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card.

Prize Alert 🎁 Take a screenshot showing you have automatic OS updates enabled on your device. Email it to cyber-month@flemingcollege.ca for a chance to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

Did You Know?

✅  Public Wi-Fi Safeguards: If you must use public Wi-Fi, verify the exact network name with staff at the location to avoid connecting to fraudulent “rogue” hotspots set up by attackers.

✅  Reporting Financial Scams: If you suspect your financial accounts have been compromised, contact your financial institution immediately using the phone number listed on the back of your card.

✅ Microsoft Defender Antivirus comes free with Windows 10 & 11, and there is also a paid subscription version available for Mac, iOS and Android devices.

Information Update: Cyber Security Awareness Month is back this October

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Cyber Security Awareness Month is back this October. As an official Get Cyber Safe champion, Fleming College is focusing on a simple truth this year: Your best defence is you.
Small habits (updating devices, spotting suspicious messages, and locking down credentials) are our strongest defence against evolving digital threats.
 

What’s Ahead This October

  • Week 1: Recognize Cyber Threats | Phishing, the 7 red flags of fake messages, and AI-driven social engineering.
  • Week 2: Strengthen Your Defences | Passphrases, 1Password, MFA setups, and upcoming authentication changes.
  • Week 3: Protect Your Information | Safe online banking, avoiding shopping scams, public Wi-Fi risks, and VPN best practices.
  • Week 4: Build Your Cyber Community | Cyber safety for kids and seniors, reporting scam texts (7726), and cyber careers.

Get Involved & Win

✅ We’re hosting challenges throughout the month to test your cyber fitness.
✅ Promote Cyber Month on your own personal social media channels – use #CyberMonth2026 #GetCyberSafe
✅ Follow cyber security best practices at work and at home
✅ Talk about cyber security with friends and family – here are resources to help you (simply choose a topic!)
Student Prize Alert 🎁 – Take our Cybersecurity Awareness Training for Students, once completed you will be included in our draw to win 1 of 3 $50 Amazon gift cards.  NOTE:  The training will be reflected on you Co-Curricular Record(CCR).

Did You Know?

✅ MFA Alert – Using SMS (your phone number) as a multi-factor method will no longer work as of February 2027.  We strongly encourage all users to add additional MFA methods to your profile.  Here is how to add Microsoft Authenticator for MFA.
Updates Block Malware: Patching your apps and operating system closes the security gaps ransomware targets most.
Public Wi-Fi Risks: Unsecured Wi-Fi allows local network snooping. If you don’t need a password to connect, it’s not a secure Wi-Fi connection. If you’re unsure, confirm the network with business staff.
⚠️ Join the Cyber Security Ontario, Cyber Security Town Hall on October 2, 2026 at 11AM. Register here!
✅ Follow @GetCyberSafe on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for tips on cyber security to help you step up your defences!

Scheduled Maintenance: Account Login Services – Wed July 29, 7:00-9:00 pm

When?

Wednesday, July 29th, 2026 – 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Why?

To perform regular maintenance.

What’s the impact?

During the maintenance window above, users may be unable to perform new logins to Fleming applications that use the common single sign-on (SSO) interface shown below. This includes MyCampus, D2L, Evolve/PeopleSoft and other applications.

Information Update: Outlook Email Enhancements

When?

Monday, June 29th, 2026

Why?

To reduce the risk of phishing and social engineering attacks by making potentially suspicious emails easier for users to identify and handle safely.

How

We are enabling the following enhancements to strengthen email security by combining advanced threat detection with improved user awareness:

These features help detect emails that may pose a security risk, such as messages that appear unusual, originate from external sources, or attempt to impersonate known contacts.
In addition, aligning the external email banner with built-in safety tips will create a more consistent and intuitive user experience by presenting security warnings in a clear, unified format.

What’s the impact?

  • Increased visibility into potentially suspicious or high-risk messages
  • Occasional legitimate emails may also be flagged or routed to Junk Email
  • Clearer, contextual security warnings to help users make safer decisions

Scheduled Maintenance: Haliburton Campus Wireless (Wi-Fi) Network Upgrade | Thursday March 26th & Friday March 27, 2026 (2 Days)

When?

Thursday, March 26th and Friday March 27th 2026 (2 Days)

Why?

To upgrade the Haliburton’s campus wireless (Wi-Fi) network infrastructure.

What’s the impact?

Fleming’s on-campus wireless (Wi-Fi) service will experience short, intermittent outages during this maintenance window.

After the upgrade, the next time you connect to Fleming’s Wi-Fi service, your device may ask you to confirm the connection information and/or trust a new certificate – which is safe to do as part of this upgrade. More guidance on troubleshooting wireless connectivity can be found here: Article – Help Connecting to Fleming.

FRAUD PREVENTION MONTH – Stay Safe: Protect Yourself from Scams & Fraud

March is Fraud Prevention Month, and it’s a good time to stay alert and protect yourself from common scams.

Scammers often pose as trusted organizations or create urgent situations. A few common tactics include:

  • Tuition/payment scams: You may be asked to send money for fees through unusual methods or at a discount (e.g., wire transfer, gift cards, or unfamiliar payment platforms).
  • Phishing emails or texts: Messages that look like they’re from your bank, school, or a service you use, asking you to click links or provide personal information.
  • Job or rental scams: Offers that seem too good to be true and require upfront payments or sensitive details.
  • Impersonation Scams: Fraudsters pretend to be bank employees, law enforcement or government officials to solicit personal data.

 If something feels urgent, unusual, unsolicited, or too good to be true, pause and verify through official channels.

 If you think you’ve been targeted or scammed, take action quickly: 

  • Contact your bank or financial institution immediately
  • Save all relevant information (emails, messages, receipts)
  • Report the incident to your local police
  • Report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: 1-888-495-8501 or online
  • Notify the company or service involved (e.g. credit card provider)
  • Consider placing alerts on your credit with Equifax or TransUnion

Visit the Government of Canada’s Fraud Prevention Month page or Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre for more tips and resources on how to protect yourself.

ITS is hiring! – Job ID 3326 – Enterprise Application Administrator

What This Position is About:

Lead the work group’s support for the College’s use of Information Application Services including but not limited to Modern Campus Lifelong Learning and D2L Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS) by coordinating communications (primarily work requests, status updates and meeting correspondence) between the client departments college-wide and the IT division with the purpose of prioritizing assigned tasks, challenging and clarifying requirements and performing initial analysis and assessment.

Provide Technical and Business Analysis support for the College’s Modern Campus Lifelong Learning Registration Portal and D2L Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS) by deploying and configuring purchased modules.

Support the client departments by gaining understanding of their business processes and system requirements through consultation. Research solutions to meet these requirements that fit the priorities and resources of the College and promote and deploy these solutions that may involve deploying a new module from the Registration Portal (currently Modern Campus Lifelong Learning) and/or Learning Management System (LMS) vendor (currently D2L Brightspace) and managing vendor contracted services.

Support client departments with product knowledge transfer by assisting in training, preparing training materials and researching product capabilities.

Provide direct technical support to students and training facilitators through work requests, delivery of training, and preparation of training materials.

Further support is provided by maintaining an awareness of current industry standards and assisting the College in evolving and developing information systems that can remain compatible with, and take advantage of, the developing trends in the information processing industry.

How To Apply:

Internal Candidates: apply through My Campus by visiting the Career Opportunities page.

External candidate: apply by visiting the Fleming Careers Page.