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Five Tips to Protect your UMBC Account Over the past weeks,

Avoid Identity Theft - especially of your own Identity


Over the past weeks, we have seen an increase in compromised accounts. So, here at UMBC’s Division of Information Technology (DoIT), we thought it was imperative to share some tips on safeguarding your UMBC accounts.


  1. Change your password frequently, maybe once a year. Most of the community members at UMBC do not change their passwords yearly. If hackers try to compromise your account more than once over a specific period, they will have less chance of succeeding if you change your password frequently.

  2. Do not use the same password on multiple sites. If you are a victim of a data breach for one of these sites, the hackers now have your password for all those sites, your UMBC account included. After a breach, always update your password. To check if you were involved in a data breach, visit sites such as  https://haveibeenpwned.com/.  Also, given that the usual purpose of identity theft is the theft of something else (like money), keep an eye on your bank account and/or credit card activity.

  3. Do not share your password with anyone. When trying to keep your account secure, trust no one with our password.  “No one” means “NO ONE”. Not your parents, not your kid brother, not your significant other.  If someone else needs access to your financial information, please follow the directions at https://sbs.umbc.edu/payments/parent-pin-login/.

  4. Install DUO. DUO is a two-factor authentication available at UMBC to help protect your account. For more information, visit https://wiki.umbc.edu/display/faq/Two-Factor+Authentication+with+DUO. Two-factor authentication is currently one of the most effective and affordable ways to secure your UMBC (or any other) online account.

  5. Create strong passwords. Do not use the name of a person, organization or your favorite anime character.  Also,, use uppercase letters, lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers to strengthen your password.  

One method to create a strong password that you can remember is to  pick a song or a poem you like and take one line from it: “In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed the seas …”  Take the first letter of the first ten words: “ittwiwblam”.  The lowercase ”i” looks like an upside-down exclamation point.  We need some uppercase, so how about “b” and “a”?  They are easy to remember since they come first in the alphabet.


Password:  !ttw!wBlAm  


After a few logins, your fingers will remember it without you having to think about it.









Hopefully, these five steps will help you secure your UMBC and other accounts. For more information about password security, visit https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/password-protection/102105/.


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Receive any suspicious emails?

Forward it to security@umbc.edu along with the email headers. For instructions, visit https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970.


Follow us on myUMBC:https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/itsecurity.



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Posted: April 17, 2022, 8:45 PM

Read Original Post in myUMBC