Gale security incident and what it means for McGill Library users
Gale/Cengage, a publisher of several databases to which the McGill Library subscribes, including the听听and听Gale Primary Sources, recently听听of their systems. According to their web site, 鈥渢here is no indication that any of the information exposed in this incident has been used inappropriately as the sites only collected names and email addresses. There is no evidence that other information was impacted.鈥�
When using any Gale product from the McGill Library鈥檚 web site, no personal information is transmitted to Gale. This publisher would only have a McGill user鈥檚 name and email address if that user proactively听provided that听information to Gale, for example, when creating an account on the Gale site to save search results or other work in one of their databases for later access.听
McGill users may be affected by this breach, but it should be limited to users who actively provided their name and email through a Gale product, and only the name and email provided (which might or might not be a McGill address) would have been exposed if the user was affected.听Users whose names and email addresses were exposed are receiving individual emails听directly from Gale听with the subject line 鈥淣otification Regarding Gale Security Incident.鈥澨�
There are听a number of听steps you can take to protect your personal information online:
- Set up strong passwords unique to each account following these guidelines:听听听听
- Add additional protection to your McGill account by enabling two-factor authentication:听/2fa/听听听
- Take advantage of McGill's free cybersecurity training:听/it/channels/news/cybersecurity-sitcom听
If you have any concerns or questions about this, please don't hesitate to contact web.library [at] mcgill.ca
