No one would walk into a crowded room and begin broadcasting to total strangers all the details of their personal life—from health issues to their friends’ and family’s names, ages, jobs, schools, etc. But too often, people don’t think twice about posting such private information on social media. The ramifications of oversharing have an impact on your personal and professional life, and those of your friends and family. 

Social media can be a great place to connect, share, and learn, but once information is posted online, you’ve lost control of it. Ensuring your privacy settings are strong isn’t enough to protect yourself, you also need to understand what data is being collected and how it’s being used. 

Privacy Settings: Regularly review the privacy settings on your social media accounts, especially when the site’s terms of service or privacy policy changes. Remember that these controls can prevent other site users from accessing your posts and information, but your information is still being collected, mined, stored, and sold by the social media platforms themselves. 

Privacy Tree: Privacy settings won’t prevent someone that you’re connected with from viewing and downloading your posts and/or sharing them with others. 

Artificial Intelligence: AI, social media, and marketing are a perfect combination. Marketers now use information gathered from your online habits to feed you ads focused on your last search or purchase and continue to learn even more about you. 

Digital Death: When a person dies, their online presence becomes even more vulnerable to abuse if their accounts aren’t actively maintained or deleted by their survivors. Most of the major platforms have established procedures to help decommission accounts of the deceased, but they aren’t always used. 

Unintentional Disclosure: The information you post about yourself has the potential to reveal much of your personal history, including the answers to your online secret security questions. 

The more information you share, and the more others share about you, the more information can be collected and used by corporations, governments, and others. One of the best ways to protect yourself online is to limit what you share and what you allow others to share about you. 

The information you share online is commonly used in highly targeted phishing attacks. ITS continues to simulate these attacks and will assign training to individuals who are routinely susceptible to these simulations. If you’re concerned that you’ve been the target of phishing, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to). 

—Peter Lundstedt, ITS 

The Special Interests Committee of All Staff Council is holding a Bulldogs Connect Networking Lunch on Wednesday, Feb. 5, from 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Come join us for $5 staff lunch at Hubbell Dining Hall.

Members of the Special Interest committee will be at each lunch and will bring networking topic suggestions. Anyone is welcome to come—bring a new Bulldog along with you! Look for the table with the Drake swag and a special Bulldogs Connect table tent in Hubbell! 

— Amelia Klatt, on behalf of All Staff Council

Nominations are now being accepted for the Madelyn M. Levitt Employee Excellence and Distinguished Community Service Awards. Nominations are due to Human Resources by Tuesday, March 31, at 4:30 p.m. Late nominations will not be accepted.

Distinguished Community Service Award
Madelyn M. Levitt established the Distinguished Community Service Award to recognize the outstanding contributions of Drake faculty and staff to the Drake community. Recipients are chosen on the following criteria:

• A demonstrated personal commitment to volunteerism and community service.
• An outstanding record of leadership or substantial involvement in community projects, services and activities contributing to the quality of life in our region, state and/or the nation.
• Professional and personal values and behavior that typify the ideals of “giving back to others” and “making a difference in the lives of others.”
• The nominee must be a current faculty or staff member with at least five years of service at Drake.

Employee Excellence Award
The Employee Excellence Award is presented to a staff member who demonstrates exceptional commitment to excellence in the performance of their duties. Criteria for the award include:

• Exceptional performance as an employee of Drake University
• Outstanding dedication to providing courteous, prompt and quality service.
• Demonstrated commitment to University programs, initiatives and services.
• Professional values and behavior that demonstrate exceptional service to others and a commitment to Drake University
• The nominee must be a current staff member with at least one year of service at Drake.

To nominate a colleague, submit a letter of nomination to the Levitt Award Committee, care of (c/o) Human Resources. Nomination letters may be sent through campus mail or electronically to drakehr@drake.edu. The letter should detail specific examples of how the nominee exemplifies each of the applicable criteria. Additional letters of support are not necessary.

The screening committee will review all nominations and make appropriate recommendations to the President’s Council.

The 2020 recipient of the Madelyn M. Levitt Employee Excellence Award and Distinguished Community Service Award will be announced during the Sapphire Awards on May 7 at 1 p.m. in Levitt Hall or during the Faculty Honors Luncheon.

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

Giving employees the opportunity to develop their skills is an important component of Drake’s culture. Here is a great learning opportunity, for those interested at Drake, to improve their English. Drake has a comprehensive Intensive English Program that offers intermediate and advanced level classes with an academic focus. If you feel that you may need additional help in a certain English skill area, be it advanced academic writing, grammar, or speaking, or if you simply would like to improve your pronunciation, you may consider taking one of these classes. The best news is that all Drake employees can take IEP classes free of charge.

View the schedule of classes for Spring 2020. The classes currently offered are:

• Reading I and Reading II
• Writing I and Writing II
• Speaking/Listening I and Speaking/Listening II
• Grammar I and Grammar II
• Pronunciation and Spelling
• TOEFL Preparation
• American Culture (This class offers regular field trips to various Des Moines locations to help students learn more about the local culture, American values, and history. This semester’s trips may include the Des Moines Art Center, the Grand Blue Mile, the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge, and even a downtown bike tour!)

Please note that these classes are not credit-bearing.

Spring classes begin Monday, Jan. 27, and end Friday, May 8. The last day to register for a class is Friday, Jan. 31. You have an option of auditing a class at any time during the semester without registering.  If you are interested in joining one of the classes or have any questions about the program, please contact Dina Khayrushina at dina.khayrushina@drake.edu. Our office is located in the International Center on 25th Street.

— Dina Khayrushina, Drake International

Final grades for J-Term courses are due by 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5. If you have difficulty entering final grades, contact the Office of the Registrar at 271-2155 or registrar@drake.edu.

— Kevin Moenkhaus, Office of the Registrar

Please plan to attend the next Town Hall and Provost’s Drake Social, Tuesday, Feb. 4, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Shivers Hospitality Suite.

The event will begin at 3:30 p.m. with a Town Hall hosted by Craig Owens. The topic will be the Center for Teaching Excellence. The Provost’s Drake Social will follow immediately after.

Colleagues who exemplify the core value of All in This Together will be recognized and three individuals will be chosen at random for prizes.

The Drake Social is a family friendly event. Partners and children are welcome.

— Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost

The human behavior side of cyber security is nearly always more complex than the technical side. How do attackers use the art of persuasion to manipulate us and access our information? They know how to exploit our natural tendencies. Be aware online–you may be responding to a phisher’s bait. 

Authority: We naturally accept psychological power wielded by authority. As such, if someone poses as an authority figure, like an FBI agent or supervisor, we are more likely to ignore obvious inconsistencies and give up sensitive information.  

Likability: Psychologically, we prefer to say yes to requests from someone we know and like. Attackers develop likeable and appealing online presences, or in some cases, will recruit attractive or charming people who have sizable social networks to help them phish for information.  

Reciprocity: People feel compelled to reciprocate a gift or favor. If we are given something online for free, we may feel obligated to trade personal information. For example, a contact may offer monetary rewards, and ask for sensitive or proprietary information under the guise of a study.  

Social Proof: Once people determine what is correct, the principle of social proof applies to the way we decide how we should behave. If someone puts significant effort into maintaining a presence on social media websites, they expect others to have done the same. That leads to an increased trust of forged profiles developed by attackers.  

ITS continues to simulate phishing attacks and will assign training to individuals who are routinely susceptible to these simulations. If you’re concerned that you’ve been the target of phishing, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to). 

—Peter Lundstedt, ITS