Online safety & security

Passwords are the key to your online life, make sure you do the following to keep them secure.

• Use a passphrase for your passwords; something like “RabbitCheesePencil#3Outlook” is easier to remember and is stronger than “D3nt@o9e” – just change the 'Outlook' part depending on what you’re logging into.
• Keep your passwords long and unique (longer than 14 characters).
• Practise making a good password at www.howsecureismypassword.net
• Never share your passwords.
• You can use a password manager of your choice to securely store and make passwords for you. They're very convenient as you only need to remember one password after you set it up.

VU Cyber has partnered with Dashlane to provide VU students with a free password manager. This is the most secure password and access management platform. 

It helps you create unique complex passwords for all of your work and personal accounts, remembers them, and enters them into websites as you login.

Dashlane stores your passwords and keeps them up-to-date across your:

• phone
• computers
• tablets
• other devices, including personally owned devices.

All VU students have access to a free account.

Login credentials, like your usernames and passwords, sometimes get hacked or stolen. MFA adds a layer of security that stops hackers from getting in to your accounts if they have your credentials.

If you’ve ever logged in to MyGov, or your bank online, you have to receive a code via an SMS, or an Authenticator App (this is more convenient, see resources), to prove that it’s really you trying to log in – that’s MFA.

Sometimes when logging in to VU systems, MFA will prompt you to verify your identity via your smartphone or tablet. This prompt is known as an MFA challenge. Check VU's MFA page for more information.

You should turn on MFA for your important personal accounts to better protect them from hackers / scammers. Here are a couple guides to set up MFA for your Google account and Facebook account. For your other important accounts, log in and go to the security page and set up MFA if it’s an option.

When accessing websites, games, shopping, and downloads online, you should follow these tips.

• Make sure your internet browser is up to date so it can help protect you.
• Look for the green padlock (https) in the URL bar. This means it's encrypted and safe. Only provide sensitive personal information when you see this padlock – like providing your TFN or credit card when buying something online.
• Only download files from trustworthy sites, otherwise they may contain a virus designed to spy on you or hold your computer at ransom (ransomware).

• Illegal downloading, streaming, file sharing, and publishing, breach copyright and can result in disciplinary actions, fines, or worse.
• Unauthorised uploading and downloading of copyrighted works is a crime.

Files in emails and on USBs could be stolen and accessed by criminals. Encrypting sensitive information, like your medical records or TFN information, can help keep it private and safe.

• Use a zip tool, such as WinZip, to encrypt your files with a secure password before sharing it digitally.
• Don’t share the password of the file in the same message, or email, as the file, because if a hacker gains access to the account sending or receiving the file they’d be able to easily access that sensitive information.

If you have no lock screen set on your device and it’s stolen, or lost, the thief would have access to a lot of your life.

Putting a PIN on your device (or fingerprint scan, or facial recognition if available) and turning on 'Find my device' (if you have this option) are a couple ways to protect your device and your personal information.

• Steps to set up lock screen for iPhone.
• Steps to set up lock screen for Android.

The only sure way to make sure your files stay safe from viruses, device theft, or devices getting old and failing to turn on, is backups.

• If you get a virus, it’s very likely you could lose all of the files on your computer forever, which is why it’s important to have a copy of your files and photos.
• Back up your files to an external hard drive, put a password on it, and store it securely.
• Back up your files to a cloud service (like OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, etc) for convenience of access and easy access when moving to a new device or refreshing your current device.

• Keep your devices up to date to help prevent virus infections on your devices.
• Delete any apps and software you no longer use.
• Review your phone apps permissions to ensure they only have access to what you’re comfortable accessing, e.g. a calculator app shouldn’t need access to your contacts and camera.

Install a reputable anti-virus software to help protect your devices, and keep the anti-virus up to date.

Public WiFi hotspots in cafes, airports, hotels, and libraries can be risky.

Connect with care by taking the following steps.

• Limit access to sensitive accounts such as banking or medical records.
• When using a laptop, identify that it is a ‘public’ network if prompted, and don’t share folders or devices with others on the network.
• Use a VPN – there is not much stopping a hacker from pretending to be a public WiFi and then spying on you if you connect; using a VPN can greatly protect you from this. You should have the VPN turned on before you connect to the free WiFi.