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Authentication

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At the height of the Cold War, David Lightman was a tech-savvy American teen who spent his free time hacking into different computer networks. While attempting to hack into a computer game company's network he unknowingly connected his device to a military system and began playing a game called “Global Thermonuclear War”.  

This game started to create false reports of imminent Soviet attacks on North America and pushed the US military to the brink of a retaliatory missile launch. Luckily, military officials would cancel the missile strikes once they realized that the attacks were fake - and even more luckily - this was not a real series of events but is actually the plot of the 1983 film, WarGames.  All of the havoc in the film is caused by a weak password – that of the computer scientist who invented the “Global Thermonuclear War” program. Our antagonist, David, almost begins a World War because the program’s creator used a password that David could easily guess.

While the plot of WarGames illustrates more extreme consequences of a weak password, millions of lives are adversely affected by cracked passwords each and every day.  Properly using authentication on your personal devices and accounts is one of the easiest ways to improve your security. By strengthening passwords and passphrases, implementing multi-factor authentication, and staying aware of password leaks you can drastically improve your digital security. 

Did you know...

Stolen and/or weak passwords led to 81% of hacking-related breaches in 2017 according to the Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report.

How can you protect yourself? 

Create and use strong passwords

  • Weak account passwords take a fraction of a second to be guessed by even inexperienced hackers whereas strong passwords could take millennia. You should use a password manager to create strong passwords.
  • OU policy requires that you change the password for your OU accounts at least once every 12 months. Instead of being surprised by the reminder email each year you can proactively find when your password expires by visiting account.ou.edu and viewing the "Account Activity History" tab.

Authentication isn't just for accounts

  • Implement a lock on all of your devices. It doesn't matter whether you choose to use a passcode, password, pattern, or even biometric data like a fingerprint; all of these authentication methods will keep your devices safe from unauthorized access.

Use Multi-Step Authentication

  • Some types of Multi-Step Authentication Links to an external site. include Two-Step Verification, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Any time you are required to verify your identity to a system in two or more ways (like entering a password AND answering a security question) you are using Multi-Step Authentication.
  • Multi-Step processes provide an added layer of security and make it more difficult for your accounts to be hacked. Many websites will offer to set up these security measures for their users or you can rely on a third-party extension or app to do this for you.
  • You can enable two-factor authentication with some of your OU accounts by setting up a DUO account on your personal devices. With time more OU accounts will become DUO-enabled. 

Stay aware of possible leaks

  • Although it is debated how often passwords should be changed it is a good rule of thumb to change your password if you have reason to believe it has been compromised. Suspicious activity on your account(s) or reports that a company you have an account with was hacked should always prompt you to change your password for that given account.