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

Don’t Subscribe to This Scam

In this week’s scam, you receive a text message that claims you can earn a large monthly income simply by watching YouTube videos. The message says that no experience is needed for the job, and you will even be provided with healthcare benefits and free training. All you need to do is reply to the text and then continue the hiring process on another messaging app, such as Telegram or WhatsApp.

However, this is actually a fake job offer, known as a “task scam”! If you reply to the message, you’ll be “hired” by a cybercriminal who will assign you simple tasks to complete, such as liking certain YouTube videos or increasing their view count. They might even send you a small payment of real money to make the job seem legitimate and gain your trust. Eventually, the scammer will ask you to pay them a deposit so you can unlock higher-paying tasks or receive additional payouts. But there are no further payouts, and they will keep any money that you send them!

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

Remember, real employers will not ask you to pay them a fee or deposit so that you can receive more work from them.
If you receive a text message that you suspect is a scam, don’t reply to it. Block the number and report it to your mobile provider.
Always use extreme caution if you receive an unexpected text message about a job offer, especially if it seems too good to be true. This tactic is commonly used by scammers to try to trick you into acting impulsively.

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