Executive IT Help Security Advisory!

Please be alert to the notifications you receive from Duo and MFA for your email, computer, and VPN. DO NOT accept any notification from Duo or other authentication app/texts if you are not logging in. DO NOT click on links in your email or form texts that require you to sign in with your password or asking you to change your password.

If your computer password or your Office 365 email password consists of a combination of simple words, phrases, names, or any other common words, it needs to be changed immediately to a complex password. The more random, the better. We advise at minimum an 8 character password consisting of upper, lower, numbers, and special characters. We also highly advise that you do not use the same password for multiple accounts. 

** If one of your passwords gets compromised, every site where you use that same password (banks, online shopping) will also become compromised. Please use hardened, random, passwords for each of your accounts.

Here are some tips to stay safe from similar security breaches:

• Do not trust everything you see on your email especially links and be sure to report any suspicious activity using the phish alert button. 
• Do not accept unknown/random requests from Duo if you are not physically logging into your computer or phone. 
• Do not input random authenticator codes or codes you have been texted if you are not physically signing into your email.
• Always validate via a phone call with any person requesting you to perform money transactions such as ACH desposits or purchasing gift cards.

Stop, Look, and Think. Don’t be fooled.