New Year, New You
As we head into a new year, it’s the perfect time to reset - not just our calendars, but our cyber habits. Our New Year, New You: Back to Basics campaign is all about focusing on simple, repeatable actions that make a real difference in protecting you and Yale from everyday cyber threats.
Building on last year’s challenge, this campaign brings the focus back to the basics that make the biggest impact. Each week includes a selection of activities like lightning talks and self-paced puzzles. Plus, we've got a lineup of headline events featuring guest experts diving into how trust is exploited in academic environments, evolving social engineering tactics, and practical tools like password managers. It’s all designed to keep things approachable, engaging, and easy to build into your everyday routine.
When you sign up for challenge alerts, you’ll receive a weekly email highlighting that week’s focus, activities, and events—so you never miss a chance to stay on track.
Start your cyber fitness journey with our New Year, New You challenge!
Strong security starts with the basics
Strong cybersecurity doesn’t require expert-level knowledge or a total overhaul. It starts with the fundamentals: clicking with caution, knowing your risk, protecting your identity, applying updates, and reporting suspicious cyber activity. When these habits become part of our daily routines, they significantly reduce our exposure to phishing, social engineering, and account compromise.
How to be a winner
Throughout February, you’ll complete a mix of quick activities, events, and challenges designed to reinforce simple, everyday cyber habits.
Start Strong
Complete a quick, pre-challenge survey to kick things off by February 6.
Join the Hive
Click that Join button and become part of The Hive! Then submit a screenshot showing the Viva Engage app pinned in your Teams desktop application.
Attend a headline event
Attend at least one headline event featuring guest speakers exploring today’s most relevant social engineering and security topics.
Crack the Code
Complete at least one self-paced puzzle to put your cyber skills to the test.
Catch a Lightning Chat
Attend at least one lightning talk for quick insights you can use right away.
Finish Strong
Complete a short post-challenge survey to wrap up your cyber refresh by February 27.
Psst...
An exclusive opportunity to win will be announced through a surprise post in The Hive. Be sure to join and check-in regularly so you don't miss the buzz!
Headline Events
Jan
29
Weaponizing Academic Trust: The new face of university cyber attacks
Jan 29, 2026 at 12:00pm-1:00pm
Hosted by
Yale and Harvard (co-sponsors)
The dangers after numerous university breaches in 2025 aren’t just digital, they're personal. Join us for a joint Yale-Harvard event to discover how AI and personal information are being weaponized and simple steps you can take to protect the Yale community and yourself.
Feb
12
Inside the Scamdemic
Feb 12, 2026 at 12:00pm-1:00pm
Hosted by
Yale and Harvard (co-sponsors)
The scamdemic is already on campus, and it doesn’t look the way most people expect. Learn how today’s most sophisticated scams work and how we can better protect ourselves and the Yale community.
Lightning Chats
February 13
Recognize the signs, relax before you react, and rethink the click. This lightning chat helps you spot social engineering tactics and build everyday habits that keep you safer online.
February 18
Some data needs more protection than others—and knowing the difference matters. This lightning chat breaks it down and shows how to protect what counts without making security complicated.
February 26
Small actions add up. In this lightning chat, we’ll cover three simple habits—securing our credentials, applying updates, and reporting concerns—that make cybersecurity easier and more effective.
Back to Basics: Featured cybersecurity habits
Click with Caution
The key to outsmarting social engineering is learning to recognize, relax, and rethink. Find our more about staying safe online and how you can use fudge for more than satisfying your sweet tooth.
Know Your Risk
Some data is meant to be shared. Some data may be highly confidential. And some data will fall somewhere in between. Discover how Goldilocks and Yale's three classifications of risk help us know how to protect our data and the data we work with.
Protect Your Identity
Protecting your online identity is about protecting the information most valuable to you—and this applies both at home and at Yale. Discover tips to take control, build strong defenses, and keep your identity and most sensitive data safe from cybercriminals.
Apply Updates
Cybercriminals look for out-of-date, vulnerable devices to hack into. It makes their job easier because they can ‘walk in the open door’ unnoticed. By applying updates, you stay one step ahead. Discover how to lock the doors to your data and devices, making it harder for hackers to gain access.
Bee SAFE, Not Sorry
How do you know when to report something? What steps should you take? What do you do once you’ve reported the concern? Discover how our Bee SAFE, Not Sorry model helps answer these questions.
Sign up for challenge alerts and stay tuned all February long for weekly activities, events, and quick wins. Small actions add up, so let's build strong cyber habits stick.