Account Security

Online Safety and Security

Staying safe online and protecting personal and college information is an important part of being a SUNY Cortland student, faculty, or staff member. While the college has security measures in place to keep information safe, you can further protect your online privacy and data by using best practices and following some basic guidelines.

As a SUNY Cortland community member, it’s important to create strong passwords—or even better, passphrases. This helps better protect your SUNY Cortland username from wrong-doers guessing or cracking your password.

Create strong passwords/passphrases

Passphrases are easier to remember and are much hard to guess or crack.

Using strong passwords is one of the most important ways to keep personal and SUNY Cortland information secure. While it might seem daunting to create a password without using easy-to-remember information, relying on a series of words and using memory techniques can help you remember even the most complex passwords. The following guidelines can help you create strong passwords:

Choose a phrase that’s unique and familiar just to you.
Make new passwords different from your other passwords.
Don’t use words found in the dictionary or personal information like dates, names, and addresses.
Combine the first part of each word in a phrase, mixing at least 15 numbers, characters, and letters. For example, “I love to play badminton” could become “ILuv2PlayB@dm1nt()n.”

Set security questions

Don’t get locked out of your SUNY Cortland myRedDragon Account. Taking a few minutes to set up your password profile will help you easily reset your password online in case you forget or lose it. If you don’t establish security questions, you’ll need to visit the Technology Help Center during operating hours to get your account issues resolved.

Keep passwords safe

Creating and using strong passwords does little to protect personal information if those passwords are not kept confidential. It might seem harmless to share passwords with those you trust (like parents and significant others), but the more people who know this information, the higher the chances of passwords falling into the wrong hands.

Don't open USB flash drives unless you trust the owner

Storage devices like USB flash drives can be used to compromise your computer and your information. If you find a USB flash drive, or if you receive one from a suspicious sender, do not connect it to a computer. The drive should be sent to the University Police Department.