Information Security

Mission Statement

The Information Security Office is committed to lowering the risk profile of the University’s electronic information by implementing industry best practices to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of student, faculty, and staff information. We uphold the University’s compliance obligations by developing information security policies, providing security awareness training, and overseeing the implementation of strategic information security initiatives.

Scam of the Week

Good Conduct, Bad Phish

In this week’s scam, you receive an email that looks like an official message from your organization. The email has an alarming subject line that says, “Reminder: employer opened a non-compliance case log.” It states that a code of conduct review has been opened against you, and includes a PDF attachment that contains a link for you to select to review additional documentation.

But this email is actually a phishing scam! If you select the link in the PDF file, you are instructed to complete a series of security checks, which include entering your email address and verifying that you are not a robot. Finally, you are directed to a login page and asked to sign in to your Microsoft account to access the file. But these “security checks” aren’t real, and the login page is fake. If you type your login information, scammers will steal it!

Follow these tips to avoid falling victim to this phishing scam:

If you receive an unexpected email about a conduct report or compliance case, do not open any attachments or select any links. Instead, contact your manager or supervisor to see if the email is legitimate.
Real internal documents usually don't require you to go through multiple security checks to access a file. If something seems suspicious, trust your instincts!
Be extra cautious if you receive an unexpected email with an attachment, especially if it seems urgent. Remember, scammers often try to trick you into acting without thinking!

Time It Takes a Hacker to Brute Force Your Password in 2025
Hardware: 12 x RTX 5090 | Password hash: bcrypt(10)

Number of Characters	Number Only	Lowercase Letters	Upper and Lower Case Letters	Numbers, Upper and Lowercase Letters	Numbers, Upper and Lowercase Letters, Symbols
4	Instantly	Instantly	Instantly	Instantly	Instantly
5	Instantly	Instantly	57 minutes	2 hours	4 hours
6	Instantly	46 minutes	2 days	6 Days	2 weeks
7	Instantly	20 hours	4 months	1 year	2 years
8	Instantly	3 weeks	15 years	62 years	164 years
9	2 hours	2 years	791 years	3k years	11k years
10	1 day	40 years	41k years	238k years	803k years
11	1 week	1k years	2m years	14m years	56m years
12	3 months	27k years	111m years	917m years	3bn years
13	3 years	705k years	5bn years	56bn years	275bn years
14	28 years	18m years	300bn years	3tn years	19tn years
15	284 years	477m years	15tn years	218tn years	1qd years
16	2k years	12bn years	812tn years	13qd years	94qd years
17	28k years	322bn years	42qd years	840qd years	6qn years
18	284k years	8tn years	2qn years	52qn years	463qn years