All employees should complete annual IT security awareness training by July 14

From: Division of Information Technology 

Annual IT security training is required for all employees, in accordance with Virginia Tech’s Minimum Security Standards for Information Technology systems. This training equips employees to identify and avoid scams that steal our time, personal information, and money; and which jeopardize university systems and data.

New, quicker renewal training available

To make it more convenient for current employees to complete this required training, Virginia Tech has added a new, shorter “refresher” course, "Annual Renewal – IT Security Awareness Training," which is now available in the PageUp Learning Management System (LMS). This course includes short modules covering essential topics to help you spot scams and phishing, protect your data and accounts, and know what to do if you suspect a cybersecurity incident while at work. Each module concludes with a brief quiz. The refresher training takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. At the beginning of each module there is also an option to take a short quiz to test out of some or all of the training.

Who should take this annual renewal course?

All full- and part-time faculty and staff, non-student wage employees, and graduate assistants who have not completed their annual IT security awareness training within the last year will receive an email notification from PageUp on April 15, 2025 asking them to complete "Annual Renewal – IT Security Awareness Training" within 90 days. 

Those who are currently up to date on this training (i.e., having taken the required cybersecurity training within the last year) will receive this notification when their annual training is next due.

Note that the annual renewal training module is separate from the IT security training that is required for new employees upon onboarding. New employees will need to complete the more comprehensive "Initial IT Security Awareness Training for New Employees" course within 30 days of beginning employment with the university. They will then be asked to complete the refresher training within their third month of employment, and once per year thereafter. 

To help department heads assess their department’s cybersecurity preparedness, the IT Security Office is providing access to dashboards that will show employee and departmental progress on annual cybersecurity training. Employees can track their own status and see upcoming due dates for all required training by visiting their development plan in the PageUp LMS.

Employees are encouraged to complete their required annual IT security training as soon as possible.