Faculty & Staff

Computer Safety Tips: Passphrases

We use passwords every day to access sensitive data at work, banking online, or checking email. However, passwords can be our weakest links.

If someone hacks our password, they have access to our most sensitive data and can potentially transfer money, read emails, or steal identities. That is why choosing strong passwords are essential to protecting yourself.

The easiest way to select a strong password is to use a passphrase. Passphrases are easy to remember and simple to type, but are complex and make it hard for attackers to hack. You can create a strong passphrase that is unique and familiar to you, easy to remember, but not easy to guess. The more characters your passphrase has, the stronger it is.

A technique to create a strong passphrase is to imagine and visualize a vivid picture or movie in your mind and use this description as your passphrase. You can type a combination of words, phrases, uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters as part of your passphrase.

Examples of passphrases include:

• >>!am3xcitedToProt3ctMy!dentity101
• >>IL0v3Chocolat3Ch!pC00k!3s123

Happy passphrasing!

Pharos Printer Upgrades

Over the winter, ITS worked with our vendor to update fourteen Pharos printers to the latest, fast, high-volume Canon multi-function models. In addition, we have added three new printers to the following buildings: 33 Beekman, Birnbaum Library, and White Plains Law School. The University has thirty-nine multi-function printers on the New York and Westchester campuses.