A new semester brings new ideas, new projects, and yes, new cyber risks. You may be teaching, researching, working in an office, or tackling classes. No matter your focus, the choices you make every day help protect Yale’s work, people, and community.
And here’s the bonus: these same habits also help protect your own inbox, files, and devices at home.
Here are three simple habits to keep you cyber fit this fall:
Know Your Risk
Before you hit send, share, or save, take a pause. Ask: how sensitive is this data?
- An open event announcement? Low risk.
- A class roster or student records? Moderate risk.
- Patient health information or unpublished research? High risk.
The higher the risk, the stronger the protection needed. Yale’s Data Classification Questionnaire makes it quick and easy to check.
Takeaway: Just like at home, you wouldn’t leave your bank statements lying around. Treat valuable data with the care it deserves.
Be Smart with AI
AI tools can be a helpful sidekick for brainstorming, summarizing, and organizing ideas. That is, only when used wisely.
Never put confidential, personal, or sensitive data into AI tools. Once it’s in, you can’t control where it goes.
Want more tips? Watch our Know Your Risk: How to Use AI the Smart (and Secure) Way webinar. In addition, visit the Yale AI website for more resources about the use of AI.
Takeaway: AI is powerful. But just like social media, once you share too much, you can’t take it back.
Join the Hive to Bee Cyber Fit
Cybersecurity works best as a team effort. Join our Bee Cyber Fit community for quick tips, practical tools, and updates to help you stay secure – classroom, lab, office or library.
Plus, explore the Bee Cyber FIt at Yale: The Essentials to Working Securely training to strengthen your cyber skills at work and at home. The same tricks that protect your Yale account can also help safeguard your personal accounts.
Takeaway: The stronger our hive, the safer we all are—on campus and off.
Final Buzz
This semester, let’s outsmart the hackers together. Small habits, big impact—because a safer Yale starts with each of us. And the best part? These same habits make your digital life outside Yale more secure, too.