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

This Job Offer Is a Trap!

In this week's scam, you receive an email from a job recruiter that says you're a perfect candidate for a job opportunity. The email is sent from a Gmail address, but includes specific details about your personal work history, which makes it seem legitimate. However, the recruiter says that your resume doesn’t quite meet their organization’s requirements. They offer to refer you to a "resume expert" who can adjust your resume, but you have to act immediately before the job is no longer available.

But this job recruiter is actually a cybercriminal! They use publicly available data about your work history, such as your LinkedIn profile, to gather information about your previous jobs to make themselves seem more convincing. If you agree to meet with the "resume expert," you'll be contacted by another cybercriminal who will offer to help for a price. But this isn't a real job offer, and the cybercriminals will pocket any money that you send them!

Follow these tips to avoid falling victim to this scam:

A legitimate recruiter will never ask you to pay for anything to be eligible for a job opportunity. Being asked for payment as part of the hiring process for a new job is a red flag.
Check the sender’s email address carefully. Real recruiters will usually contact you from a corporate email address, rather than a personal email account, such as Gmail.
Remember, scammers often offer something that seems too good to be true as a way to trick you into sending them money or personal data. If an opportunity seems suspicious, trust your instincts!

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