February News from Information Security

Welcome to the much delayed February newsletter! I apologize for the tardiness of this edition.

There is a fair amount of news to share, some of it WAY overdue, so I’ll start there.

First, if you are using multi-factor authentication (MFA), you experienced a change in your password settings this week. I apologize for the unannounced change, that was not the way it was planned. The change includes two very important modifications to your password requirements – first, and most importantly, your password does not expire for 365 days! That’s a whole year to not have to worry about changing passwords. Second, and still very important – your minimum password length has changed from 8 characters to 14 characters. Yes, that is a big change, but it shouldn’t be an issue, as you have a whole year to come up with another password! The change was important due to the increased maximum password age. A 14 character password is exponentially harder to crack than an 8 character password. Your basic password security is still important. If you have issues creating a 14 character password, please take a look at the good password guidelines Quick Info guide here on the site. It is a good quick resource for creating strong passwords.

Second, please check the recent post on this site about a data breach on the Adult Friend Finder website. There were 22 Berry email addresses included in that breach.

The third item on our list refers back to the first one. If you are not using MFA, you should be! In addition to only having to change your password once a year, you get the added security of multi-factor authentication. All faculty, staff and students are eligible and encouraged to use MFA, not only for Berry accounts, but for all of your accounts that support it. Multi-factor authentication and creating secure passwords are two life skills many of us never thought we would have to learn, but here we are!

Fourth, there is a LunchITS planned for Thursday, February 13th from noon until 1PM in Krannert 109. Bring your sack lunch or grab something in Krannert and come learn how to quickly spot phishing attempts and get a clearer understanding of the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by phishers as they attempt to sink a hook into our organization.

Finally, in lieu of a topic of discussion here in the newsletter, take a look at this great SANS OUCH! newsletter for February about Social Media Privacy. It goes right along with information from our recent Data Privacy Day back on January 28.

If you’re not following Berry OIT on Facebook (@BerryCollegeOIT), Twitter (@berryoit), or Instagram (@berrycollegeoit), you should be, as more information from OIT and specifically Information Security, will be provided using these outlets. Remember you can always check back here for warnings about current phishing emails, confirmations of valid emails you might have a question about, and data breach notifications. There’s also the Q&A section, where you can ask a question and get an answer directly from me, and the events calendar where events like tables in Krannert and LunchITS will be posted.

Photo Credit – Photo by Yura Fresh on Unsplash