Why You Should Care About Protecting Your Password
Why should I care about protecting my password? Passwords are the keys to your digital world (including campus’ systems you access). If your password is stolen, the following could happen:
• Money is stolen from your bank account or your credit cards may be used to make expensive purchases online
• Someone uses your identity to post hateful or damaging messages online forums such as Facebook, twitter, etc.
• All of your personal communication is read, including emails, chat and private messages
• Sending out thousands of emails in your name advertising dubious or even illegal activities
• Compromise university data, resulting in costly breach response and litigation
• Compromise of your desktop, laptop or mobile device, allowing the bad guys to then target your personal information such as bank accounts
• Use your compromised desktop, laptop or mobile device to attack other devices on our campus network
• If you use the same passwords across different accounts, the bad guys will try these accounts and gain access to even more of your online identity
These things really do happen, and happen far too often.
What are the ways my password can be stolen?
There are many techniques that can be used to acquire someone’s password without their permission. Some common techniques include:
• Tricking someone into revealing their passwords, known as “social engineering”. A common method is to call someone and pretend to be from the IT department. Sometimes malicious emails and websites are used to trick users into divulging their passwords, a technique known as “phishing”.
• Stealing usernames and passwords from insecure systems, such as a poorly secured website forums, and using those passwords to gain access to more sensitive systems
• Guessing a password by trying out many possibilities from dictionaries and password lists, known as a “brute-force attack”
• Guessing a password based on personal information you know, such as a birth date, pet’s name, etc.
• Installing software or hardware devices known as “keyloggers” to capture the input from the keyboard.