The Security Hero program as been resumed, prizes will be mailed directly to the winners now.
A security hero is someone who actively helps keep the university environment and data safe and secure from harm. Information security is a collective responsibility, and the VCU Information Security Office needs help from the VCU community to defend our university against various threats that may jeopardize the safety and security of university information.
This could be as simple as reporting phishing emails or help others with security best practices. Some examples of what qualifies someone as a security hero are:
- Report phishing or email scams to infosec@vcu.edu
- Report suspicious behavior (someone using a PC they should not be etc.)
- Report lost / stolen equipment
- Report potential unauthorized access
By reporting potential security incidents to the information security office quickly, the information security team may be able to substantiate and respond to the potential threat quickly. Therefore, a security hero can potentially save the digital lives of many others, whether they are targets of a scam or have their information included in datasets targeted by the cyber villains.
Please send all reports to infosec@vcu.edu. Reporting of potential security incidents will enter you into the security hero of the month raffle, and the security hero award will go out at the end of the month to the security hero that VCU Information Security Office selects from the entries.
The security hero of the month can choose one of the following exclusive shirts/polos:
"I save digital lives" Tee
"I am a security hero" Tee
"Spot the phish" Tee
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"I am a security hero" Polo
"I save digital lives" Polo
Congratulations to our Security Hero Raffle Winners!
April 2024 Winner: Duane Busby
Duane is a Voice Field Engineer Supervisor at Virginia Commonwealth University, he reported a phishing email that attempted to steal passwords from VCU employees. Due to this report the Information Security Office was able to block the email and prevent any victims. Thanks Duane!
October 2022 Winner: Laura Foy
I worked at the Wilder School as the Development Coordinator from December 2017 until August 2021 and now work for VCU Development and Alumni Relations as the Senior Project Coordinator for the Principal Giving Team. My role focuses on writing meaningful acknowledgement letters for major gifts to the university, scheduling meetings for multiple teams, and providing assistance for presidential donor engagement events. My goal is to create meaningful opportunities for our students, patients, and donors.
September 2022 Winner: Katie Condon
My name is Katie Condon, and I work at VCU Libraries. As a member of the Scholarly Communications and Publishing Division, I collaborate with colleagues across the libraries and our fabulous student employees on digitization, digital access, and digital publishing efforts and support. Together, we build our digital collections and institutional repository, including both VCU-published works and materials that focus on VCU, Richmond, and the surrounding region. Phishing is getting more creative these days, so it's important that we all try to identify and report to the VCU Information Security Team or the VCU IT Support Center. It's great to have folks to turn to when you're uncertain!
August 2022 Winner: Mason Hester
July 2022 Winner: Patricia Trimmer
June 2022 Winner: Diane Schabinger
Diane Schabinger has been with VCU for over 17 years, starting on the Medical Campus as a SAS consultant. After being away for several years working for a non profit and then the cable industry, she "returned home" to VCU working in Degree Audit before moving to Student Accounting over 12 years ago. Several months ago, she received an email thanking her for her order containing a "receipt" when she knew she hadn't made any recent purchases. Knowing she shouldn't open the attachment, she contacted infosec@vcu.edu and they confirmed it was a scam.
May 2022 Winner: Brandon Alliet
April 2022 Winner: John Patykula
March 2022 Winner: Kimberly Ivey
Kim Ivey is the Education and Student Services Coordinator for the Virginia Center on Aging and Department of Gerontology, in VCU's College of Health Professions. She noticed a strange email that turned out to be a scam. As soon as Kim realized that this was a scam, she forwarded it to infosec@vcu.edu.
February 2022 Winner: Steven Oden
January 2022 Winner: Anna Obermiller
June 2020 Winner: Rachel Wasilewski
May 2020 Winner: Ryan Lauterio
February 2020 Winner: Maitlan Sullivan
January 2020 Winner: Louise Wenzell
December 2019 Winner: Levi Walters
November 2019 Winner
September 2019 Winner: Laura Pond
August 2019 Winner: Julia Rasnic
July 2019 Winner: Michelle Peace
June 2019 Winner: Matthew Martin
May 2019 Winner: Jackie Meyers
April 2019 Winner: Crystal Coombes
March 2019 Winner: Emily Kundrot
February 2019 Winner: Modestine Carter
January 2019 Winner: Richard Sliwoski
December 2018 Winner: Joel Eisner
November 2018 Winner: Chief Venuti
Security Hero Spotlight: October 2022 Winner Laura Foy!
I worked at the Wilder School as the Development Coordinator from December 2017 until August 2021 and now work for VCU Development and Alumni Relations as the Senior Project Coordinator for the Principal Giving Team. My role focuses on writing meaningful acknowledgement letters for major gifts to the university, scheduling meetings for multiple teams, and providing assistance for presidential donor engagement events. My goal is to create meaningful opportunities for our students, patients, and donors.
I must admit that I receive many more phishing emails in my current role than I did previously. Most of the phishing emails I receive use the name of one of my colleagues in leadership asking me to respond about doing a task to help them. They usually have phony email addresses, which is a quick giveaway that it's phishing. I've recently seen several attempts saying that someone has shared files with me and others. I am always skeptical of these, and luckily, many of them are filtered by spam before I see them, so I know they're suspicious. One email I received looked realistic and even included VCU branding in the message. It said my VCU account would be deleted if I didn't click the link, and I knew that couldn't be legitimate.