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

A Meeting You’ll Want to Miss

In this week’s scam, you open your Microsoft Outlook calendar and see an unexpected meeting invitation. The meeting is titled “Final Notice: Payroll Acknowledgement Required” and appears to be urgent. If you open the event, you'll find a PDF attachment with a QR code and instructions to scan the code for more information.

However, the meeting invitation you received was sent by cybercriminals! If you scan the QR code and pass a brief security check, you are directed to what appears to be a Microsoft 365 login page. You are prompted to enter your username and password to access your Outlook account and read further details about the meeting. But this login page is fake, and if you enter your user information, cybercriminals will steal it!

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

If you do see a suspicious meeting appear on your calendar, don't select any links or open any attachments in the invitation.
Unusual or alarming meeting invitations should be treated like suspicious emails. Be sure to follow your organization's policies for reporting them!
Remember that cybercriminals use urgent-sounding language, such as "Final Notice," to scare you into acting impulsively. Always stop and think before you take action!

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