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

You Should Rethink This Refund

In this week’s scam, you receive a text message that appears to be from Amazon. The message claims that an item you bought was of poor quality or has been recalled. It also states that Amazon will provide you with a full refund and a free replacement of the item, and provides a link for you to select to view additional details.

However, this is a smishing (text phishing) scam! The link in the text message doesn’t direct you to the actual Amazon website. Instead, it takes you to a fake page that looks like a real Amazon login page. If you try to log in with your Amazon account credentials, cybercriminals will steal them immediately!

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

You should never select any links in an unexpected text message. If you do receive a suspicious text message, be sure to report it!
If you believe there’s an issue with one of your Amazon purchases, open the official Amazon app on your phone or navigate to the official website and contact their customer support.
Remember, if an offer seems too good to be true, it usually is! In this case, scammers are trying to trick you into selecting a malicious link by offering you a “free” refund.

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