Many of you will find a new channel in your Portal labeled “Password Security”.

This channel will include a list of sites where your password has been compromised.

You may have placed your WOU credentials at risk under the following conditions:

For example:

• your WOU account is johnDoe, with an e-mail of johnDoe@wou.edu and a password of theSaltShaker
• your Amazon account is johnDoe and your password is theSaltShaker

The Portal report displays all sites where you have compromised accounts, resulting in your userid and password being published on the Dark Web.  Even though your password wasn’t initially compromised at WOU, you run the risk of someone picking up the userid/password pair and trying it at WOU.

It is suggested that you have a separate userid/password pair for each authenticated service you utilize.

What should I do to increase my level of security?

• You will notice that in a recent blog tilted “Digital Identity Guidelines“, you now have the ability to enter up to 64 character passwords at WOU.   I would take advantage of the longer password ability.
• For each site you login to, I would have a separate userid/password pair.
• Never share your credentials.