How safe are your e-mail passwords?
Sofia Bork
Issue date: 2/26/10 Section: News
E-mail passwords often give many students the feeling of security and secrecy, a security blanket of sorts, known only to the person who created it.
That has not always been the case at North Georgia. The passwords for many students are not as safe as they would like to think.
For the NGCSU classes of 2012 and 2013, the passwords given to many students are easy to guess, as they are either phrases such as "summer08!" or "college08!"
For the freshman class of 2013, the passwords are a bit trickier. They begin with a letter, followed by an exclamation point, and then the student's birthday.
Although the class of 2013 has better passwords, there are only 26 letters of the alphabet to go through, and most Facebook users' birthdays are visible on their profile pages.
While this may not seem dreadfully important, the fact that student e-mail accounts can be hacked into fairly easily is important, as a hacker could easily cause a world of mayhem for any student.
But trying to change those passwords is something of a struggle - unless you know the secret key.
Just clicking on the "Settings" tab on their e-mail homepage brings up a gray box that informs the user that their password must be changed on a campus computer, or that they must talk to somebody in the IT department.
The problem with this is that even if you are on a campus computer, it still won't let you change your password, and most people don't want to talk to somebody in the IT department.
Dr. Bryson Payne, the Chief Information Officer of the Information and Instructional Technology Department, said the key to changing the password for your student e-mail is easier than it might appear.
Here are the steps:
1. Log in to your student e-mail account from an on-campus PC. A Mac will not work.
2. When you reach your student e-mail homepage, hold down the ALT, CTRL (control key) and the DEL (delete) buttons down all at once. It is imperative that you press all three buttons down at the same time, or the password change window won't pop up.
That has not always been the case at North Georgia. The passwords for many students are not as safe as they would like to think.
For the NGCSU classes of 2012 and 2013, the passwords given to many students are easy to guess, as they are either phrases such as "summer08!" or "college08!"
For the freshman class of 2013, the passwords are a bit trickier. They begin with a letter, followed by an exclamation point, and then the student's birthday.
Although the class of 2013 has better passwords, there are only 26 letters of the alphabet to go through, and most Facebook users' birthdays are visible on their profile pages.
While this may not seem dreadfully important, the fact that student e-mail accounts can be hacked into fairly easily is important, as a hacker could easily cause a world of mayhem for any student.
But trying to change those passwords is something of a struggle - unless you know the secret key.
Just clicking on the "Settings" tab on their e-mail homepage brings up a gray box that informs the user that their password must be changed on a campus computer, or that they must talk to somebody in the IT department.
The problem with this is that even if you are on a campus computer, it still won't let you change your password, and most people don't want to talk to somebody in the IT department.
Dr. Bryson Payne, the Chief Information Officer of the Information and Instructional Technology Department, said the key to changing the password for your student e-mail is easier than it might appear.
Here are the steps:
1. Log in to your student e-mail account from an on-campus PC. A Mac will not work.
2. When you reach your student e-mail homepage, hold down the ALT, CTRL (control key) and the DEL (delete) buttons down all at once. It is imperative that you press all three buttons down at the same time, or the password change window won't pop up.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
rlaird
posted 2/27/10 @ 11:43 AM EST
Well written and to-the-point with enormously applicable information for students. Would appear that author tried the "posted" solutions, found them unworkable and followed through by contacting the "top dog"! (sorry Bryson, no offense intended, but the buck does stop on your desktop)
Assuming transmitted factual info is sound, this kind of reporting should be very useful to both students and administration/staff serving them!
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