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

Hold, Please. It's a Phish!

Imagine your phone rings, and it is someone claiming to be from your organization's IT support team. The call may seem to come from a co-worker you know, and it might reach you on a personal device. Because a request from IT can feel routine, you may be tempted to respond right away.

But this call is actually a scam, known as vishing, or voice phishing. Extortion groups, such as ShinyHunters, use these calls to persuade you to perform a familiar action, such as approving an authentication request or entering a device code. If you complete the action, cybercriminals can steal your login information or register their own devices and authentication methods. They can also potentially retain access to your account after you reset the password, that's why it's important to sign out of all devices when you change your login credentials.

Follow these tips to avoid falling victim to vishing:

Verify any unexpected requests through an established channel, not the number that contacted you.
Never approve or put login information into an authentication request unless you initiated the request yourself.
Always stop and think before you act, even when the call seems to come from a person or organization you trust.

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