Password changes
The IT Service Center announced that they would alter password requirements for all students beginning in April.
These changes come after a gradual integration of updated password requirements, including the requirement of 16 characters minimum.
Associate Vice President and Chief Officer of IT Services Charlie Weaver is part of the team implementing the changes, which started to take effect for incoming students over the previous year. The changes in April will affect everyone, including those who are graduating.
“As seniors, you guys keep your accounts when you leave,” Weaver said. “This is one of those things where it’s about security, as well as everything else. And you know, when you guys get out and get your jobs and things like this, you’re going to run into the same kind of things that we’re doing. And hopefully, you’ll understand it and see it and kind of remember it, and it’ll prepare you for that.”
Weaver also mentioned that seniors may be able to decline the password change once or twice, but they will eventually be required to change to the new password requirements to re-access their account.
IT Services encourages students to use a passphrase instead of passwords to make it easier for students to remember while still having the extra security of having more characters.
“Remember, you always want to stay away from something that people could guess,” Weaver said. “Now again, you put your brother’s first name your cousin’s last name, and, you know, some random things. That’s a little harder, right? But if you used your dog’s names or your parents name like something that they could get off Facebook or something that’s not a good one.”
Weaver recommended using phrases from books, music and other things that students can easily remember.
According to Weaver, there are no other plans for major password changes at this time, however, IT is looking into eventually having a password-less sign-in.
Email phishing
IT Services have been issuing emails warning students about phishing emails for over a year, as students’ accounts and personal information are at risk.
Phishing emails can look like normal emails and even have information similar to what an actual company has. They try to steal personal information, including bank account numbers, social security numbers and credit card information.
Associate Vice President and Chief Officer of IT Services Charlie Weaver has seen how phishing emails have changed over the past few years.
“So phishing is a tough, tough business, because especially with AI now, it’s getting very tricky,” Weaver said. “You know, before there was a lot of messages that would come out, and you could easily spot them. They were very broken. They were broken English. It was poor language, poor grammar, poor everything. And now they’re getting way more sophisticated. “
Weaver recommends that students who aren’t expecting an email from the company that comes through look closely at the email address. He stated that often these emails have an extra letter or character added to them, which can be hard to spot at a quick glance.
While IT tries to block most spam emails and phishing attempts, some still fall through the cracks. Weaver believes that students should read emails carefully before responding.
Phishing attempts have also been reported to have links that look like the actual website for the company they are pretending to be, and in some cases getting the user’s credentials and then reaching out pretending to be the company to get authorization codes.
“They do enough research to know we have [multifactor authentication],” Weaver said. “Then they somehow will email you and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to send you a text message when you get that, send it to us.’ Or they, sometimes they get your cell phone number and they’ll text you and say, ‘Hey, we’re resetting some stuff. We need you to give us this when you get that response.'”
Whether the email looks legit or not, Weaver recommends double-checking the sender of the emails before clicking on any links to help protect accounts and personal information.