​Safe Computing Tips

1.  Create complex passwords -

     - 8 characters or more, a mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and non-alpha characters.   Longer passwords are much more difficult to crack.

 2. Use different passwords for U of U / HCI systems and personal accounts on Internet-based resources

         - having different passwords on personal accounts makes it less likely that a hack on one system will jeopardize your data on other systems.

         - Use variations of easily remembered themes or phrases, unique for each sight.

              Example:  DisneyBlue5Sunburn  - "Disney" was a family vacation, "Blue" is the color of the logo, such as bank, "5" is the number of characters in the company name, "Sunburn" is what you got on your vacation. 

              Another example, using the theme above.  DisneyRed8Sunburn - same theme for www.ucreditcu.com (red logo, 8 characters in ucreditu)

2. If possible, do not use your HCI email address or account name for account names on external systems.  There are some instances where research or other collaboration sites require using your HCI email address as an account name, but please don't use your identity for account names for non-HCI related accounts.

3 Be suspicious of emails - Most hacks occur from phishing emails designed to get users to click on a web link or embedded file.  Fake emails about money, package delivery, tax refunds, child abductions... any topic that is likely to have an immediate emotional response that will cause a user to "click".

    - if you get multiple copies of the same email from a variety of users in a short period of time, a virus may be behind it.

4.  Backup any important data on network or approved cloud storage - hard drives fail, and malware attacks could involve "locking" data files, with the demand to pay a ransom.  Paying the ransom frequently doesn't work, and the recovery is to reload the system and restore data files from backup, which is only on network drives.

5. Be wary of "free" software.  If you use Firefox or Chrome, only download those browsers from Mozilla.org (for Firefox) or Google (for Chrome).  Popular download sites often carry "free software laced with malware.