How to avoid winter viruses:
Wash your hands and hide your password
Issue date: 11/10/05 Section: News
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By Susan Sieber
The TARTAN
"The easiest way for identity thieves and pranksters to get into systems and accounts is not the use of sophisticated hacker tools," said John Linehan, Assistant Vice President of Information Technology at MCC. "Instead, they use the time-proven techniques of talking or tricking you out of the information they are after, whether it be a password, credit card number, birth date or social security number." But unlike confidence tricksters of the past, online con men don't even need a smooth appearance. "StockDeals@yahoo.com", or "JohnRoberts@accountant.com" may be legitimate business email accounts, or they may be criminals using free Yahoo.com and Accountant.com accounts to trick customers out of valuable information. "A favorite technique of identity thieves is to call or e-mail claiming to be working on a customer service or technical support issue," said Linehan. The thieves then ask you for identifying information, which they will later use to access your real account, or to set up new bank accounts, credit cards, or entire cloned identities. Linehan recommends making sure of callers' or emailers' identities before giving out any personal information, and never, ever sharing your password.
Last year MCC began requiring students, staff and faculty to use strong passwords such as "B:)2d@y" and "ImbzRu2?". An uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, a number, and a special symbol are all necessary for the seven, or more, character strong password. And, as of this summer, campus computers left unattended now lock down after fifteen minutes, requiring the user to log back in with his or her user name and password. Users are recommended to force their computers to lock even if just leaving for a few minutes, pressing the Windows key and "L" key together to do so.
But if you are just logging in to send an email, surf the web, or type a paper, are security precautions really necessary? MCC Senior Desktop Specialist Tracey Naleway said yes. Even if you are just visiting the restroom, she emphasized, lock your computer.
The TARTAN
"The easiest way for identity thieves and pranksters to get into systems and accounts is not the use of sophisticated hacker tools," said John Linehan, Assistant Vice President of Information Technology at MCC. "Instead, they use the time-proven techniques of talking or tricking you out of the information they are after, whether it be a password, credit card number, birth date or social security number." But unlike confidence tricksters of the past, online con men don't even need a smooth appearance. "StockDeals@yahoo.com", or "JohnRoberts@accountant.com" may be legitimate business email accounts, or they may be criminals using free Yahoo.com and Accountant.com accounts to trick customers out of valuable information. "A favorite technique of identity thieves is to call or e-mail claiming to be working on a customer service or technical support issue," said Linehan. The thieves then ask you for identifying information, which they will later use to access your real account, or to set up new bank accounts, credit cards, or entire cloned identities. Linehan recommends making sure of callers' or emailers' identities before giving out any personal information, and never, ever sharing your password.
Last year MCC began requiring students, staff and faculty to use strong passwords such as "B:)2d@y" and "ImbzRu2?". An uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, a number, and a special symbol are all necessary for the seven, or more, character strong password. And, as of this summer, campus computers left unattended now lock down after fifteen minutes, requiring the user to log back in with his or her user name and password. Users are recommended to force their computers to lock even if just leaving for a few minutes, pressing the Windows key and "L" key together to do so.
But if you are just logging in to send an email, surf the web, or type a paper, are security precautions really necessary? MCC Senior Desktop Specialist Tracey Naleway said yes. Even if you are just visiting the restroom, she emphasized, lock your computer.