Cyber Security Awareness Month Don't Let One Click Sink Your Semester

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

Invoice Approved, Scam Confirmed

You're at work when an email arrives that appears to come from your CEO or another executive, asking you to pay an invoice. The email includes a forwarded annual subscription invoice with bank transfer instructions and an email conversation between the executive and the vendor. It seems real, so you may be inclined to pay it.

But this email is actually a phishing scam, and both the invoice and the forwarded conversation are fake! Cybercriminals target many organizations with these emails by impersonating both the executive and the vendor. Cybercriminals hope the email and invoice look real enough that you'll pay without stopping to think. But if you make this payment, the money goes to a bank account controlled by the cybercriminals!

Follow these tips to avoid this executive phishing scam:

Confirm any payment request with the sender by phone or in person, using contact information you already know is real.
Follow your organization's payment approval process for every invoice, no matter who appears to approve it.
Report any unexpected email that asks for a large sum of money, no matter who sent it, by following your organization's procedures.

Time It Takes a Hacker to Brute Force Your Password in 2026
Hardware: 16 x RTX 5090 | Password Hash: bcrypt(10)

Number of Characters	Numbers 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	46 minutes	2 hours	3 hours
6	Instantly	37 minutes	2 days	5 Days	1 week
7	Instantly	16 hours	3 months	10 Months	2 years
8	Instantly	2 weeks	12 years	50 years	132 years
9	2 hours	1 year	636 years	3k years	9k years
10	20 hours	32 years	33k years	191k years	645k years
11	1 week	839 years	1m years	11m years	45m years
12	3 months	21k years	89m years	737m years	3bn years
13	2 years	567k years	4bn years	45bn years	221bn years
14	23 years	14m years	241bn years	2tn years	15tn years
15	229 years	383m years	12tn years	175tn years	1qd years
16	2k years	9bn years	653tn years	10qd years	75qd years
17	22k years	259bn years	33qd years	675qd years	5qn years
18	228k years	6tn years	1qn years	41qn years	372qn years