Protecting your digital identity

Welcome to Week 2 of Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CAM) 2026.

As part of the CAM "Securing the Next 250" campaign, this week's focus is on protecting one of the most valuable assets: your digital identity.

Authentication, like passwords and forms of multifactor authentication (MFA) such as passkeys, serve as the front door to University and personal systems. Strong authentication practices help protect your personal information, email, student and research data, administrative systems, and other sensitive information from unauthorized access.

This Week's Security Reminders

🔐 Use unique passwords for every account

🔐 Avoid password reuse between university and personal accounts

🔐 Use an approved password manager

🔐 Enable and maintain MFA on all eligible accounts

🔐 Never approve unexpected MFA requests

Did You Know?

Many account compromise incidents begin with a stolen password. MFA can stop many attacks even when an attacker already knows your password. (Ever get a MFA prompt unexpectedly? This could mean your password has been compromised, but if you deny that prompt, MFA will have stopped the attacker from progressing further.)

MFA Tip

If you receive an authentication request that you did not initiate:

❌ Do not approve it

✅ Deny the request and contact IT immediately

Action Item

Complete our 3-minute Week 2 Password and MFA Quiz to test your knowledge.

• Participants who complete every week's quiz will be recognized as Cybersecurity Champions at the end of the month.

Strong passwords and MFA and even passwordless authentication like passkeys are among the simplest and most effective cybersecurity protections available.

Thank you for helping secure our University community,

- NEOMED IT Security

Did you miss last week's quiz? Find it here