Five-Minute Feature: Cathy Coffinger, Technical Support Coordinator

Get to know the Empire State University community through this rapid-fire interview series that bridges professional accomplishments and personal interests. What makes Empire State University exceptional? The unique people behind the work. Five minutes—starting now!

What led you to your career path?

I started using a computer in 1995 when I was in high school. This is back where computers had no hard drive to save to; you had to save your data on audio cassettes and reload it back whenever you turned it on. It had a whopping 5 KB of RAM, but I was hooked. At the time I was working shelving books at my local library in Las Vegas.

Over the years I became a power user and wanted to switch to the IT department, but they said I was too valuable in the position I was in—at that time I was in purchasing. So, I left the library and moved to the purchasing department at the City of Henderson. After a year, I was able to transfer into IT as a help desk analyst, and I have been in IT ever since.

What is your favorite thing about SUNY Empire?

My favorite thing about SUNY Empire is the people. Everyone here is so kind and focused on the goal of educating adults. It is wonderful to work someplace with so many people sharing the same values.

What’s one moment in your career you’re especially proud of?

I had not been working long in IT when my boss’s supervisor asked me to essentially lie to someone. I honestly don’t remember the details of the issue anymore. I went back to my desk and stressed about it for a while before going back into his office and telling him I would not go against my personal value of honesty. Not only did he back off on the request, but he also apologized, and said he respected my integrity.

Can you share a recent initiative that’s helping keep our university community safe while online?

CloudFlare WARP is a web application firewall which also does DNS filtering (technical terms for keeping our equipment and data safe). The IT department has been using it since June and reporting back on any issues that have come up to make it as seamless as possible for our end users. We have been gradually putting the WARP client on the end users’ computers. This replaces our old VPN (virtual private network), safeguards institutional data, and ensures we are in compliance with all security requirements.

Here is your chance—disprove one cybersecurity myth: 

Myth: “Security through obscurity” is the myth that someone is not important enough or their business is too small to be targeted.

The truth is everyone is targeted. The bad actors often do go after celebrities, CEOs, and political figures, but that doesn’t mean you are safe. Hundreds of thousands of phishing emails are sent every day. It only takes one person thinking the email is legitimate to click on a link (thinking they are going to a trusted site and putting in their credentials) to infect the entire network.

People must be skeptical of their email. If something seems off about an email (spelling, someone requesting something unusual, or receiving an email from someone new when you aren’t in a public-facing position) then the user should contact the alleged sender, using something other than email, to verify the email is legitimate. It is a 5-minute process that could save hours of time and a lot of money. Once the cybercriminals have your credentials, they also have access to your entire address book, and they can send more phishing emails to your contacts through your account. Also, you should never use your SUNY Empire password for other websites. Then, they might have access to your bank account, or your shopping accounts. They could run up your credit card shopping as you.

And it can happen to anyone; it has happened to me. So, it is important that if you do click on a link that you think is suspicious, you should change your password right away and contact the Service Desk at 518-587-2100, option 5.