USU plans password overhaul

LOGAN — Students, faculty and alumni at Utah State University are being asked to change their computer access passwords, after an increase in the number of hacking incidents.

"We need to get some more complicated passwords," said Bob Bayn, USU's network security coordinator. "A lot of people are using passwords like 12345. ... All those really easy passwords are in the hacker's password guessing dictionary."

Bayn recommends passwords use a variety of criteria to make them harder to crack — like using a mix of up to eight characters and three numbers. Such combinations are harder to remember, but Bayn said mnemonic tricks can help cement the password in memory.

The effort will be worth it, Bayn said.

"The people who are trying to guess passwords are motivated by financial gain," he said. "They want either to impersonate someone to gain their resources or gain access to our information."

Bayn said that in recent years, USU has seen an increase in the number of automated password guessing attacks from hackers worldwide. Recently one overseas hacker used an employee's password to try and download an entire USU library database restricted to use by students, faculty and staff.

"They have tools to either crack or guess passwords with much greater efficiency and in recent years, we have not kept up with this risk by increasing our password standards little by little," said Bayn. "Now we're having to do it fairly significantly all at once."

The password switch is set to be complete by April 10. The new passwords will also increase access to USU computer programs, including Aggiemail, Blackboard and student computer labs.