Information Technology Services (ITS) reminds Mason employees and students to remain cautious during the holiday season and consider the following preparations before leaving for winter break.

• Turn off all non-essential devices, including computers, servers, printers, and monitors in your offices and on-campus residences. If you telecommute, log out of systems you are not using.
• Clean up any unnecessary files stored on your computer or the MESA M:drive. After the winter break, ITS will move forward with the project to migrate data off the MESA M:drive. (Information about the project is at MESA to Microsoft 365 Migration Roadmap).
• Report any phishing or suspicious emails to the ITS Support Center at 703-993-8870 or support@gmu.edu.

In addition, employees and students are reminded to remain cautious when online.

• Never share your username, password, or Two-Factor (2FA) Authentication code with anyone. These requests come from cybercriminals trying to compromise accounts to steal money and information.
• Do not click on links or download attachments in emails from strangers, and ignore any requests for gift cards or money.
• Only connect to known or trusted Wi-Fi networks.
• Ensure your operating system and web browser are up-to-date before making online purchases.

The ITS Support Center will close at 5 p.m. Friday, December 15, in observance of Mason’s winter holiday. It will reopen at 8 a.m. Tuesday, January 2, with modified hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays. Normal business hours will resume at 8 a.m. Tuesday, January 16.

If you have an emergency while the Support Center is closed, please call 703-993-8870 and listen to the prompts to be connected to a representative. Up-to-date information regarding outages and alerts can be found at Alerts & Bulletins.