MSU Campus Resources about Coronavirus (COVID-19)

- MSU's Coronavirus Update website. This website includes all campus updates sent to the campus community, FAQ, and resources and helpful links.

- Racer Restart - Fall 2020. This website has information on MSU's Racer Restart Initiative, including campus updates about what Fall 2020 at Murray State will look like.

- Racer Success. This website has academic success resources for students and families, including an FAQ, academic advising information, helpful contact information, and more.

- Technical Pandemic & Disaster Planning Quick Guide article, including information on remote access, communication tools, and other tips for employees

Safe Computing Tips While Working/Learning Remotely

Due to the current global climate related to COVID-19, there has been an increase in attacks to many of the technologies people use in their personal and professional lives. These technologies include email, texts, phone calls, video conferencing, online sites, and more. Murray State University’s Information Systems is providing the following information to help our campus community stay proactive in keeping their personal, professional, business, and academic information secure.

Email Phishing Attacks and Scams
It’s easy to become comfortable when creating and responding to emails, especially during this time of remote work. Scammers are taking advantage of this and are employing a multitude of different scams through email. One of the more frequent we see is described in our “Email Scam Information - March 2020” article. Please review this article, and its included links, for tips and techniques to identify spam and phishing emails.

Zoom Video Conferencing: Security Resources
“Zoombombing” is a cyberattack that has greatly increased as more institutions and businesses turn to virtual meetings to conduct daily activities. Zoombombing occurs when outside individuals gain unauthorized access to Zoom meetings and post inappropriate, often hateful, content to participants. Although Zoom has addressed this situation, there are still steps our faculty and staff can take to secure their meetings.

Zoom is continuing to change their default settings to increase security and reduce the risk of Zoombombing. Recent changes require a waiting room for all meetings; hosts will need to let in all participants. Additional changes allow only the host of the meeting to share their screen. The host can allow others to share their screen by making them a presenter. These settings do not affect existing scheduled meetings, so hosts must reschedule meetings, especially if they were using the recurring option.

Please review additional information in our “Securing Zoom Meetings: Best Practices” article.

Working From Home - Securing Your Devices and Business Data
Whether you are accessing Murray State resources from your home computer or from an MSU laptop, there are many ways you can protect yourself and the data you access. Please look at our “Working From Home Securely” article for tips.

Information Security Training
One of the best ways to protect yourself from cyber attacks is to educate yourself. Murray State University employees have access to our “Cyber Security Awareness Training” through myGate on the Employee page. We have provided instructions for accessing the training in our “Information Security Awareness Training” article.

Additional Resources
The Federal Trade Commission has provided additional information on how to avoid COVID-19 related scams in their “Coronavirus: Scammers follow the headlines,” “Avoid Coronavirus Scams” and “FTC: Coronavirus scams, Part 2” articles. This is more than just cybersecurity awareness, but also addresses robocalls, online sellers, fact-checking, and more.

Murray State University’s Information Systems has provided additional support documentation in the “Technical Pandemic & Disaster Planning Quick Guide” article.

For additional assistance, please put in a Service Catalog support ticket or contact the Service Desk at msu.servicedesk@murraystate.edu or 270-809-2346.

RacerAlerts and Emergency Weather Information

As winter approaches, the potential for severe or inclement weather increases. MSU has provided information on the three categories of inclement weather related actions for campus and how those actions are communicated. Weather notifications will be communicated via all-user emails, MSU homepage, WKMS-FM (radio and website), University Facebook account, and the University Twitter account. Once these notifications have been sent, the MSU Police Department will issue a RacerAlert text message to all users who have opted into texting services.

About RacerAlerts: All current students, faculty, and staff who have provided their cell phone contact information through their myGate accounts are already signed up for RacerAlert text messages. To verify or update your primary cell phone number in myGate, follow the myGate Information Change instructions (PDF). Information on how RacerAlerts work, as well as how parents and community partners can sign up is on the RacerAlerts website.