The University has no indication that personally identifiable information has been accessed or compromised. Nonetheless, the University is taking the proactive step of requiring that\u00a0ALL passwords be changed immediately and no later than 4:30 PM on Thursday, May 24<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Accounts with passwords that have not been changed by this time will receive an additional notification, will have their passwords expired, and a change will be required before the account can be used again.<\/p>\n Ongoing monitoring of the University\u2019s computer systems resulted in early detection of this system intrusion, which improved our ability to implement protection and mitigation strategies.\u00a0The University continues to work with law enforcement and information security experts to investigate and address the intrusion.\u00a0\u00a0Users are asked to be extra vigilant with their computer use and report any suspicious activity to\u00a0abuse@uvm.edu<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For more information you can read the full announcement<\/a> and an up-to-date FAQ<\/a>.<\/p>\n While no one likes maintaining passwords, they remain an important part of the security infrastructure at UVM and our peer institutions. We’ve recently implemented Multifactor Authentication<\/a> for access to our most sensitive services, such as PeopleSoft, VPN (Virtual Private Network), and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, and we may protect more systems with MFA in the future. Even with MFA in place and our strong password standards, you can help protect yourself and the University by following these guidelines:<\/p>\n UVM NetID passwords require at least two different character sets, but more is better.<\/li>\n An ideal password is one that is easy for you to remember, impossible for a human to guess, and more difficult for a computer to crack. While UVM stores passwords in a strongly encrypted form, attackers could potentially leverage the computational power of botnets and modern supercomputers to crack weaker passwords with relative ease.<\/p>\n Using a string of random words is a great alternative to remembering a string of gibberish (or choosing a weak password):<\/p>\n Image:\u00a0xkcd\u2014a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language<\/a>\u00a0(Creative Commons BY-NC 2.5<\/a>)<\/p>\n A few other tips:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You’ve probably heard by now that UVM has been subject to a computer system intrusion that has the potential to result in the malicious use of UVM NetIDs and passwords. Here’s the crux of the announcement: The University has no indication that personally identifiable information has been accessed or compromised. Nonetheless, the University is taking … <\/p>\n\n
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