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

One Letter Away from a Scam

A message pops up in your Facebook Messenger inbox from what appears to be an official Facebook account, “Meta Verified.” Unusually, the account name is misspelled as "Verrified," with an extra “r.” But what catches your attention is that the message says your Facebook account shows unusual activity. It includes a PDF attachment and warns that your account will be permanently deleted if you don't respond within 24 hours. The message includes the official Meta logo and states that it is encrypted, so at a glance, it seems real.

But this message is actually a phishing scam! Cybercriminals hope that you’ll be alarmed by the urgent warning about account deletion and act without thinking. If you open the PDF file, it could contain malicious links or direct you to a fake website that is designed to steal your personal data!

Follow these tips to avoid falling victim to this scam:

If you receive an account warning through Facebook Messenger, don't open any attachments. Go directly to the Facebook app or website yourself to check your account status.
Use caution any time you receive an unexpected message that seems urgent. Cybercriminals often try to trick you by rushing you into acting before you’ve had a chance to think.
In this particular scam, the message you receive is from an account with a misspelled name. Unusual account names or grammatical errors in “official” messages should always be treated as a red flag.

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