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When working off-campus, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have the necessary and appropriate equipment to perform your work, this would include your home network and WIFI are secure.
Protect Home Internet Connections
TSTC has a number of controls in place that protect internet connections within the office environment. When connecting from home, however, certain practices will ensure security and quality:
Connectivity: Using Wi-Fi or a hotspot at home, please ensure you’re using a modern encryption tool, that’s equivalent to a password, to establish a connection to the home network.
If you are not sure - contact the Help Desk or your ISP provider.
(Modern encryption tools such as Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2), with a strong preshared key (PSK)).
Virtual private network (VPN): A VPN encrypts information to tunnel it from its source to its destination. When accessing TSTC resources please use the TSTC PulseSecure VPN connection.
Web browsing: Internet users need to be cautious about the sites they visit. There are confirmed malicious websites that may appear legitimate but are engineered to infect devices through a web browser. While conducting sensitive transactions, verify the sites used are secure and implement secure socket layer protocols (SSL) with the website to secure the traffic between the originating device and the destination site. These sites will begin with HTTPS://
Passwords: Strong passwords and long passphrases are more secure than shorter passwords, and users should rotate passwords periodically.
IMPORTANT - Never give your user name or password to anyone, even if they call you. There is no reason anyone will legitimately ask for this information.
Stay patched: Users are responsible for patching (downloading and applying the latest firmware update from the vendor) home infrastructure, such as routers and PC’s.
Use of Personal Devices for TSTC work: You should be using a TSTC provided computer to work from home. If your department is unable to purchase one for you, please contact the Help Desk to see if we have any loaners on hand for you to borrow. If you are using a personal computer to work from home, you should not download any TSTC documents to your computer. Using your personal computer will open the machine up to the Texas Public Information Act if there is any TSTC information on the machine.
Recognize and Report Suspicious Activity
Emails (Phishing)
If you receive an email request that looks legitimate, like it is from TSTC or another valid entity, be very cautious. Please report any suspicious emails to the TSTC helpdesk.
Phone Calls
Report all suspicious phone calls to the Help Desk immediately.
If it’s a phone call, try to get a name and number they are calling from.
If someone is trying to create a sense of urgency to get you to act, be suspicious.
If you receive an email or phone call from a vendor that you know is legit, but you're not familiar with the person that has contacted you call the vendor and confirm legitimacy of the individual.
Do not let anyone who calls you remotely connect to your machine. Scam callers will ask to remote to your computer to fix an issue. Report these instances immediately to the Help Desk.
Downloads
When downloading programs and files, be cautious. You can check the files and program install files using virustotal.com.
Software
All software on TSTC computers must be approved by the Office of Information Technology prior to installing. For a complete listing of allowed software, please refer to the purchasing software knowledge base article on support.tstc.edu website.