Privacy and Security

Important! Never share your password with anyone, no matter who you think they are. No credible organization will ever ask for your password or account information, so if someone does, you can be reasonably certain they are up to no good.

Privacy is a very important issue in an educational context, and University instructors have the responsibility of protecting student privacy in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). In addition, as a student, you have the responsibility of protecting your own privacy and data security as well.

A rather famous password comic, via XKCD

Why is privacy important?

In today’s world, privacy is more important than ever. Large corporations and individuals can collect data to use for their own purposes, often at your expense. Fortunately, ISUComm Sites provides a secure environment for producing educational content, provided that you practice a few simple rules. Maintaining privacy will help protect your personal, professional, and academic identity from malicious users.

How Can I Secure My Account?

Keeping your account secure ensures that no one else will be able to access your materials or impersonate you online. You keep your account secure by using a strong password, changing it regularly, and never sharing the password with anyone. More information about password security can be found online in a wide variety of resources, but some general tips follow.

Choose a long password: The length of a password has a direct impact on how hard it is for a computer to guess.

Don’t share your password: no one should ever ask you for your password. Many email scams (called phishing attempts) try to solicit this information from you, so don’t be fooled!

Use a unique password: It might be tempting to use the same password for everything, but this is very insecure. If any single site gets hacked, all your accounts are compromised. Instead, choose a unique password for each account, especially important accounts like email, AccessPlus, bank accounts, and so forth, and use a reliable solution for keeping track of them.