Password and Challenge Questions
4. Know your Password and answers to your Challenge Questions.
Keep your information secure
As you get ready to join the KU community, remember that there are some basic technology to-dos that will help prevent identity theft.
Create strong, unique passwords
Since your KU Online ID is used to sign in to a wide array of services - including Enroll & Pay, Blackboard, your email, and much more - be sure to create a strong password. Strong passwords include a mixture of capital and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols, and they are at least eight characters long. Learn more about KU IT's password guidelines here. If you forget your password, you can reset it by following the steps in this KU IT Knowlegebase article.
Use a password manager
A great way to keep your data safe is to use a strong and unique password for every site you use. It can be challenging to remember a different password for every site, so consider using a password manager or vault. While KU IT does not offer vault services, there are many free or reasonably priced solutions that are robust and well-respeced. Apple's Keychain feature is widely used, as are vaults LastPass, Dashlane, and LogMeOnce.
- Read an extended review of several leading services at pcmag.com.
- Read an Apple support article on Keychain access.
Run anti-virus and enhanced malware protection software
If you have a computer, you should have antivirus protection. Yes, even on a Mac! There are thousands of active viruses, and you need an antivirus program that can keep up. KU IT employs Sophos Antivirus to protect all KU workstations, and we recommend it for personal use as well. Learn how to download a free version of Sophos onto your personal device.
Work from the cloud
Do you really want to be the student who has to tell your professor that your crashed laptop ate your paper? KU IT offers 1TB of free, secure, online storage via OneDrive for Business, in addition to free downloads of desktop versions of Microsoft Office 365. Learn more here or get started using Office 365 by logging into office365.ku.edu.
