Cybersecurity awareness hit closer to home this October with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) shutdown.
AWS went down in the morning of Oct. 20, impacting many apps, including Canvas. Canvas is widely used on campus at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). Students and staff use Canvas to do assignments, communicate and more. BGSU Information Technology Service sent an email to students stating that there were issues with Canvas and Turnitin. In the email, they stated that the vendor is fixing the issue.
Along with Canvas shutting down, Snapchat, Fortnite, Vemno, Amazon, Ring, Duolingo, Verizon and more experienced issues due to the AWS shutdown.
Later that evening, on Oct. 20, the BGSU Information Technology Service sent out an email stating that the issue is resolved. Some students were unaffected by the shutdown.
“I didn’t actually notice it because I don’t have a class until 4:30 p.m. and I didn’t know about it until my roommate informed me that it was down. So it didn’t really bother me because we also didn’t use Canvas in the class that I was in,” said Madelyn Blevens, a freshman majoring in early childhood education.
Other BGSU students were frustrated that they could not access Canvas.
“It was pretty frustrating. I had a plan to get all my homework and things done during the week and I couldn’t work on it for most of Monday. Once it came back up around 7:30, I had 5 assignments to get done,” said Skylar Dixon, a sophomore majoring in advertising.
With the AWS shutdown happening during Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it is more important than ever to educate students.
“Cybersecurity awareness month is so important because it’s about educating end users [average users]. So you and I, as end users, are the most targeted point,” said Michael Good, associate teaching professor in accounting and information systems. “The majority of cybersecurity attacks are not initiated at a server. They’re initiated through an end-user device that can connect to those servers.”
What students should do to protect themselves is to have a different password for each site, put multifactor authentication in front of every app and stop for a second to consider if they really need it, according to Good.
Students have a personal stake in their jobs that deal with technology if they do not take precautions.
“Students should care about that because you live and work in an environment that is so heavily reliant on cybersecurity and on technology. You don’t want to be the reason that your company is losing billions of dollars, because then you lose your job or potentially lose your job,” Good said.
For more information and help, the Wood County Public Library hosts Technology Thursday from 2-4 p.m. for any questions about technology. Students and community members simply need to book an appointment on the library’s website.
