Changes Coming to BC Emails

As a result of many Bluefield College employees receiving a form of cyber attack called phishing, BC’s Information and Systems Technology (IST) Department has developed a plan to increase security measures for email accounts.

“Without a keen eye, these phishing attacks may be easy to fall for,” said Josh Beckett, IST systems administrator. “The attack could easily come from an email account from a domain other than bluefield.edu (i.e. Gmail, Yahoo) but still have the same name set as an employee.”

For example, Beckett said the email address “evansamuels92@gmail.com” could still have the same display name as “Evan Samuels.” To combat this, IST has implemented a rule for all incoming emails to the bluefield.edu domain that communicates when an email is coming from an outside source.

“We also have plans to deploy a multi-factor authentication program for our accounts,” Beckett said. “Details are still undecided on if it will be mandatory or not; however, the MFA (multi-factor authentication program) will require users (to) have a separate device or method to continue to log into the desired site.”

With an MFA, Beckett explained, in the unfortunate event that someone gained access to an employee’s or student’s credentials while they were grocery shopping, for example, a notification would appear on their phone asking for approval to log in to their email account. Easily, with a press of a button, he described, they could deny access.

In the meantime, the IST Department encourages employees and students to follow the current guidelines and procedures for data protection outlined by the school’s governing bodies.

“We also recommend a long password to secure your accounts with,” Beckett said. “The length of a password matters far more than the complexity. ‘LemonSpeakerFloor1928’ is a far greater password than ‘E72h1os9u#’ from a brute force bot’s point of view.”

The list for security could be very long, but IST is trying to make sure it secures Bluefield College emails as much as possible. To reach IST for support or questions, email support@bluefield.edu.