At Waterloo, cybersecurity is a community effort: protecting yourself means looking out for the people around you.
Starting university means taking charge of your digital life. This Cyber Awareness Month, the Goose has a few simple tips to help keep you and your work safe year-round.
Build a secure digital environment
A Canadian Goose’s nest isn't one material doing all the work; it's layered with twigs, grasses, reeds, moss, and feathers, each one backing up the others. Build your digital environment the same way:
Accounts:
A weak password is a weak twig. Between WatIAM, social media, banking apps, you'll quickly accumulate more passwords than you probably had in high school.
What's changing isn't the water; it's the size of the pond.
University doesn't introduce you to technology; it introduces you to a much larger digital life.
- Use a password manager to generate and store a long (15+ characters), unique password for every account
- Enable the strongest Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) available. You're already using Duo 2FA to protect
- your WatIAM account. You can also use it to secure many of your personal accounts.
- Periodically review and close accounts you no longer use.
Connections:
A goose won't nest on open ground. Learn how to connect your devices to Eduroam, safely connect gaming consoles and other devices by adding the device to the allow list.
- Use Eduroam on campus.
- Protect your home Wi-Fi with a strong password. See this video from IST on how to Configure your home network router.
- Public Wi-Fi is convenient, but it isn't always the most trustworthy option. If available, consider using your phone's personal hotspot instead of a café's Wi-Fi network. Hotspots use mobile data and battery power, so they aren't always practical, but if you use one, secure it with a strong password and turn it off when you're done.
Devices:
Feathers only stay waterproof because a goose keeps preening. Your laptop, phone, tablet, gaming console, smart TV, and other devices also need the same level of maintenance to stay secure.
- Keep your operating system, browser, firmware, and apps updated.
- Use the security protections built into your device and keep them enabled and updated.
- Use device encryption.
- Download software from trusted sources. Waterloo offers software for students.
- Avoid leaving devices unattended in public spaces. If you need to step away, take them with you. In private spaces such as a dorm room or office, lock your screen whenever you leave your device unattended.
- If you use a public or shared computer, use a private/incognito browser window. Always sign out of websites and applications when you're done and close the browser before leaving.
Stay vigilant
Waterloo geese are famous for many things, but one of their most useful traits is vigilance. When they sense danger, they honk to warn the gaggle and pay attention to what's happening around them. As you settle into life at Waterloo, do the same.
Before you click, pay, reply, approve a login, or share information, PAUSE:
- Pause before reacting to create space between the message and response.
- Awareness — notice the pressure or fear it's leaning on.
- Unpack it — does the sender, the ask, the timing add up?
- Select your next step — verify through a source you trust, not one it gives you.
- Escalate if it still feels off. Report it to Security Operations Centre (SOC) right away. Follow these reporting steps.
Being vigilant also means paying attention to the tracks you leave behind. Every post, tag, comment, photo, profile, and online interaction leaves digital footprints. As you explore your new pond, every ripple you make can reveal something about you.
Cyber criminals follow those tracks too. A fake co-op offer feels more believable when it already knows your program. A housing scam seems legitimate when it knows you're apartment hunting. A phishing email feels more authentic when it includes details about your courses, clubs, or job search. The more footprints you leave behind, the easier it becomes for criminals to build trust and lower your guard.
The same caution applies to AI tools. Before entering information into a public AI service, pause and consider what you're sharing. If you wouldn't post it publicly, don't paste it into an AI prompt. Personal information, University information, and assignment content should be handled carefully. See Waterloo’s GenAI Student Resource Hub.
When the wind knocks you off course
Even careful geese get caught in storms. Devices fail, accounts get compromised, phones get lost, and mistakes happen. No amount of preparation makes you stormproof, only storm ready.
Start by protecting the accounts that help you recover everything else.
For many students, a personal email account becomes the recovery key for banking, shopping, social media, gaming, and other important services. Make sure it has a strong password and 2FA enabled.
If your laptop was lost, stolen, or stopped working today, what would you lose?
Make sure assignments, research data, photos, and other important files are backed up somewhere you can restore them. It's much easier to recover a file from a backup than recreate weeks of work the night before a deadline.
Finally, know your safe harbour before you need it.
If you lose access to your Waterloo account, forget a password, or run into a technical issue, IST Help & Support can help you get back on course. Mistakes happen. Reporting concerns early often makes recovery faster and easier.
Final honk
University is full of firsts: your first residence room, first co-op placement, first apartment, and maybe the first time you're truly responsible for managing your own digital life.
Build your nest carefully. Watch the tracks you leave behind. Look out for the gaggle and Honk for the Flock. When something doesn't seem right, trust your instincts and ask for help. One student's report today may stop hundreds of others from falling for the same scam tomorrow.
Want more practical tips?
Visit Waterloo's Cyber Awareness website and subscribe to Honk If You're Secure! to stay up to date on scams, security advice, and lessons learned from across the Waterloo community.