McMaster cyber heroes’ series | Secure accounts for peace of mind

Today, cyber threats take various forms and cyber villains use different tools and platforms. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one way to protect your accounts from being compromised and minimize access to your data in case your account does become compromised. MFA is free, easy-to-use, and available to all McMaster students, faculty and staff. MFA works by requiring ‘something else,’ other than your password, to prove you are you when your account is used to log in to McMaster systems. MFA is secure because it focuses on things that are unique to you: (Government of Canada)

• What you know: A PIN, password, or security question
• What you have: Your phone or a fob
• What you are: Your fingerprint, your face, your eyes or your voice

This Fall, with many more staff, faculty members and students back on campus and in hybrid environments, how will our heroes handle villainous online attempts to steal their login information?  McMaster cyber heroes will need to trust their super security senses!

MFA, Em’s super cyber security sense, saves the day

Em is on their phone scrolling through cat videos when their cyber senses kick in: A cyber villain is trying to get into their email! They activate their By doing that, cyber villains can’t get into their email and steal their account information.

Dr. Eff the content creator, active yet secure

Dr. Eff uses different social networks to stay connected and updated on the news, while creating their own content and posts. With their super security sense, they make sure their account privacy settings are set to connections only and to always review their account recovery settings. This way, only those they’ve approved can view their content and their personal information is within trusted networks. Great job, Dr. Eff!

Ay and the too many passwords to memorize problem

Ay visits so many websites and have several accounts, it’s hard to keep track of which account they used with what password. While it’s tempting for Ay to use one simple, easy to memorize password (as 123, ABC or !$*) for all their accounts, it’s much easier to use a password manager to keep it all together as:  Bitwarden, LastPass, Dashlane, 1Password, etc.. Ay’s super security sense pushes them to get a password manager. With the password manager, Ay needs to memorize only one password, by which they will have access to all their different passwords.

Super Cyber Security Takeaways

Account security affects all internet users. Would you leave your door unlocked and let anyone into your house? Of course not. Then why would you let anyone into your account? Staying protected with MFA is like having a doorman at your front door. You control who gains access to your account and when, allowing you to deny malicious attempts on your account with just a push of a button.

Here’s how to stay secure your accounts for peace of mind:

• Ensure you are signed up for MFA: Multi-Factor Authentication – Office 365 Hub (mcmaster.ca)
• Use a safe and secure password and utilizing a password manager to keep your account information safe. For more information and tips on your McMaster account management please click here.
• Make sure your passwords are strong and secure. Here are some guidelines to properly create and maintain passwords.

Reminder

Spot the cyber cat throughout the month in stories by McMaster IT. Each week, cyber cat will appear in one of the stories. If you spot cyber cat that week, let us know here where in the world is cyber cat. Each time you get it right, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a prize from the McMaster Campus Store!