Pawprints: Security Best Practices to Keep You and UConn Cybersafe
Welcome to Pawprints! Here, you can review recommendations, tips, and the security best practices you should adopt to enhance your personal and university cybersafety.
Password Hygiene
Your passwords safeguard your digital identity and prevent unauthorized access to an abundance of critical information across your devices. They protect your online accounts, personal details, and university data, and more. Review the Pawprints Best Practices to create and manage strong passwords and protect your digital identity.
Strong, complex, and unique passwords are crucial to your security.
To review UConn’s password standards, visit: security.uconn.edu/password-standards/
Password Length
Lengthen your Password
Your password may seem like it would be hard to guess on the spot, but modern methods and tools make short or simple passwords a lot easier to crack than you might think. As technology, computers, and virtual tools develop - so do cybercriminals and their methods. As cybercriminals get increasingly more advanced, your password should too.
An easy way you can protect your credentials from getting cracked is to lengthen your password. Malicious actors can use password hash cracking to guess up to trillions of passwords per second - meaning that the less characters in a password, the more quickly it can be compromised.
UConn's password standard requires a minimum of 12 characters.
It's Pawprints Best Practice to have a password at least 16 characters in length.
The longer, the better. Don't keep it simple - keep it safe!
You can change your password and manage your digital identity at netid.uconn.edu.
Personal Information in your Password
Exclude Personal Information from your Password
With society and culture becoming increasingly virtual, so are our personal lives. Individual personal details may be public on social media sites, databases, public records, blogs and reviews, apps, online memberships, and more.
As a result, your personal information should never be used in your password. The more random your password is, the harder it is for malicious actors with access to your personal details to crack.
Here are some examples of what to avoid:
- Names of loved ones or pets (first, middle, or last)
- Phone numbers
- School names or mascots
- Birthdays
- Sports teams
- Address information (street names, cities, zip codes, etc.)
- Your favorite musicians, actors, athletes, or other pop culture icons
- Phrases, slogans, or song lyrics
- Words related to your job or interests
- Your favorite animal, sport, food, superhero, TV show, place, etc.
If you have any of the details listed above in your current password, you should change it to something random.
It's Pawprints Best Practice to exclude any personal details from your passwords.
Don't keep it simple - keep it safe!
You can change your password and manage your digital identity and netid.uconn.edu.
Password Age
Update your Password Annually
You may not know if your online accounts have been compromised or if someone else has access to your password. Writing your passwords down, using public Wi-Fi without a VPN, clicking on phishing links, or reusing passwords across online accounts can contribute to a weak password over time.
It's Pawprints Best Practice to change your password once a year.
If it's been a while, it might be fragile - keep your password up to date and reduce the risks associated with outdated credentials.
You can change your password and manage your digital identity at netid.uconn.edu.
Password Managers
Don't Let your Browser "Remember Next Time"
Autofilled passwords are extremely convenient and efficient - they save you the time it takes to type your password in and the effort it takes to remember it. But when your web browser asks if you want to "Remember this password?" - you should always say no.
Web browsers are fairly easy targets for malicious actors. Various types of malware and extensions can extract information saved in web browsers including passwords, credit cards, home addresses, and more.
There is a way that you can enjoy the convenience of autofilled passwords and avoid the risks associated with saving them in your web browser: use a password manager.
It's Pawprints Best Practice to use LastPass.
LastPass is a password manager that enables you to store your passwords and personal information in a virtual safe called a password vault. When you log into password protected systems like NetID Single Sign On, LastPass automatically fills in your password for you without allowing your browser to save it.
All UConn faculty, staff, and students have access to premium LastPass benefits when you activate an account with your UConn email address.
For more information on LastPass and detailed instructions on how to activate your account, visit: LastPass for UConn Accounts.
Special Characters in your Password
Avoid Character Substitutions in your Password
Today's password cracking methods and tools are sophisticated and advanced - especially enough to be able to see through the common trick of spelling passwords with character substitutions. For example, if "password" spelled as "p@55w0rd" isn't too difficult for you to read, it isn't too difficult for a computer either.
You should never use character substitutions in your password - they are common, crackable, and weaken your s3cur1ty.
Here are some examples of character substitutions to avoid in your password:
- @ for a
- 8 for b
- 3 for e
- 9 for g
- 0 for o
- 1 or ! for L or i
- 7 for t
- 5 or $ for s
If you have any of the character substitutions listed above in your current password, you should remove them and include random numbers and characters instead.
It's Pawprints Best Practice to exclude any character substitutions in your password.
Don't keep it simple - keep it safe!
You can change your password and manage your digital identity at netid.uconn.edu.