Look after your passwords – to protect yourself and the university

According to the national Centre for Cyber Security, cyber criminals currently pose a high threat to Danish institutions, and, in recent months, hackers have systematically attacked banks, airports, the healthcare system and ministries – and forced their websites to close. 

Head of information security at AU, Thomas Kaaber, explains that hackers regularly attempt to break into the university’s systems. 

“We have put a wide range of technical security measures in place, which act as a good safeguard, but they cannot solve the problem alone. We also rely on our staff and students helping us to maintain a high level of information security. It is extremely important that everyone looks after their passwords – to protect against identity theft and data breaches,” says head of information security Thomas Kaaber. 

You can do this by: 

• creating a good, unique password 

• not using the same password across several platforms 

• activating two-step authentication. 

New internal campaign focuses on creating strong passwords and protecting identity 

To increase awareness of information security, AU has launched a campaign to help staff and students create strong, unique passwords and protect their online identity. 

Unique passwords are important, but they are also difficult to remember. So it is a good idea to use what’s called a pass phrase, which is a password made up of parts of a sentence. 

For an effective extra layer of security, you should also use two-step authentication wherever possible. Two-step authentication allows you to verify that it is actually you who is trying to sign in. 

“The best thing you can do is activate two-step authentication for all your accounts that require passwords. Also on your personal email account and social media accounts, because our experience is that, if hackers have cracked your password for one account, there is a major risk that they will be able to break into your other accounts,” says Thomas Kaaber.  

You can find advice on how to create strong passwords on au.dk/adgangskoder, where you can also download campaign material. 

• Read more on au.dk/adgangskoder