Annual Cybersecurity Awareness Training

faculty staff cybersecurity training sans litmos

For 2024, the training is launching in mid November and must be completed by January 15th, 2025.

What is it?

Each year Mount Holyoke College requires all faculty and staff to complete a Cybersecurity Awareness Training through the SANS Institute.

The program is designed to comply with the College's data handling procedures and covers data security practices at an institutional and personal level. College leadership supports this initiative and expects all faculty and staff to complete the training.

The annual training usually launches in October (which is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month). A training invitation and reminder emails will be sent from helpdesk@mtholyoke.edu. If you go to the training platform (mtholyoke.litmos.com) outside of the annual training period, there won't be any courses for you to complete.

TIP! Most faculty and staff will be eligible to complete a short "PreCheck" quiz before going through the training modules. If you answer a module's questions correctly, you can skip that module. You only need to complete the modules that are learning areas for you, or that aren't covered by the quiz. The quiz takes 20-30 minutes. Running through all the modules can take around an hour.

We’ve heard that the “PreCheck” quiz option can be easy to overlook. Here’s what it will look like in the training platform:

Screenshot of the training start page. In small blue text near the bottom, the "take precheck" option is circled in red with a red arrow pointing to it. To the right there is a different option to "go directly to training"

Staff who deal with highly sensitive information are assigned additional role-specific courses that are not always covered in the PreCheck quiz.

Who is required to take the annual training?

Current MHC faculty and staff

New employees:

If you start during the annual training period, you will not be able to access it right away. You will get an email invitation from helpdesk@mtholyoke.edu when the training becomes available to you.
If you starts outside of the annual training period, you will take the training the next time it launches for everyone on campus.

How do I access the training?

Go to the training platform

Go to mtholyoke.litmos.com
Choose "log in with Google"
If prompted, enter your MHC username and password

Trying to log into SANS training platform from a reminder email and getting an error?

Links in the reminder emails expire when the deadline passes, but the training remains available for a little while after the deadline if you go directly to the training at mtholyoke.litmos.com.

Need further support?

Get support using the "Get help" button on this page.

Hours/Availability

You'll be notified each year when the training becomes available, usually in October. Once launched, the training is available online in a self-service mode and can be completed 24/7.

Support is available during regular business hours when the College is open.

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