You probably know it’s a bad idea to use “password,” your pet’s name, or your birthday as a password. But the worst thing you can do with your passwords is reuse the same ones across multiple sites. If even a single account is compromised in a data breach, no matter how strong your password is, hackers can easily use it to access your other accounts.

The average person has at least 50 passwords. Remembering strong passwords for that many sites is nearly impossible without resorting to some sort of trick. The best trick is to use a password manager.

A password manager is a secure, automated, all-digital replacement for the little notepad, sticky note, or unencrypted Word or Excel file where you might keep your passwords now. Password managers generate strong unique passwords for each of your logins, and store all of your passwords—and, if you choose, your credit card numbers, addresses, bank accounts, and other information—in one place, protecting them with a single strong master password. As long as you remember your master password, your password manager will remember everything else, filling in your username and password whenever you log into a site or app on your computer or phone.

While many web browsers have integrated password managers, those options are not ideal as they generally store passwords on your computer in an unencrypted form. This means someone could access your computer’s password files and view them in clear text. Using a dedicated password manager that stores passwords in an encrypted file is a far superior solution.

While ITS does not recommend any specific password manager, there are a variety of options available for little to no cost. Taking the time to install and learn how to use a password manager greatly increases your security profile and makes it easier to enter your credentials, especially on a mobile device.

Protecting passwords is a critical step in maintaining online security. Remember to never enter your login credentials on a website unless you have verified its authenticity. Be especially wary when clicking on links in emails that take you to sites asking for a username and password. To help you recognize fraudulent sites, ITS will continue to simulate phishing and assign training to those most susceptible. If you believe you’ve been targeted by phishing, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to).

— Chris Mielke, ITS

A few weeks ago, you read about the three focus areas identified from Great Colleges To Work For (GC2WF) survey results. Last week, we started asking for detailed feedback on the first priority: ensuring a consistent and robust cascade of communication.

Communication has been a focus area based on GC2WF survey results for the past several years. Instead of doing what we have done in the past, we wanted to dig deeper—as the GC2WF survey results provide big-picture insight but not necessarily detail. Last week, we facilitated two brain-storming sessions and we shared a pulse survey both focused on just this first priority. The short survey will only take a minute to complete. It remains open through Oct. 5.

While the brainstorming sessions were not well-attended, those who did participate brought forth meaningful feedback and great ideas. Based on that, and initial pulse survey results, some themes are already emerging. The most prominent is that employees desire greater opportunities to provide input and be heard. Additional themes include:

• Leadership Visibility: Many faculty and staff would appreciate increased visibility of leadership and more face-to-face interactions, especially after the separation and isolation experienced during the pandemic.
• Townhalls/Team Meetings: Townhalls and department/unit meetings facilitated by the relevant President’s or Dean’s Council member appear to be meaningful to both faculty and staff. Such events should reserve time for questions and discussion and not merely be events for information flowing out.
• Institutional and Departmental Planning: Additional opportunities to get involved in planning—both at the institutional level and within departments—would be appreciated. There seems to be continued interest in utilizing focus groups, task forces, surveys, and pro-actively engaging faculty/staff who are subject-matter-experts in the area.
• Training for Managers: Training for front-line managers to better appreciate the connection between communication and employee engagement and active-listening would be valuable. Additional manager training may also help level-set, as there seems to be wide variations in how employees view the effectiveness of their mangers in communicating.
• Leverage Faculty Senate & All Staff Council: Better utilize and leverage these bodies for sharing information, collaborating on projects and improvements, and using as sounding boards.
• Benchmarking: Fresh benchmarking on best practices internal communication—not just within higher education but other industries, too. Information sharing is something that evolves and requires a complex solution, given employees’ varied preferences.

If you have additional ideas or suggestions relating to this focus area, there is still time to respond to the survey. Please also feel free to share thoughts directly with Nate or Maureen. In fact, if you have thoughts, ideas, or suggestions relating to the GC2WF survey in any way, please reach out to us. We want to take more intentional and meaningful steps to respond and react to the survey responses. Let us know if there are additional efforts we should be considering.

Once the pulse survey period is closed, we will work on a more comprehensive outline of areas for improvement, reconsideration, and innovation and go from there.

Later this month, we will turn our attention to the second priority area focusing on facilitating reconnection and attending to our culture. We will again provide opportunities for you to provide insight and input into how to make improvements in this important area.

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources, and Nate Reagen, Office of the President