Jubilee holiday closure: 2nd and 3rd June

The IT Service Desk is closed on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd June 2022 for the Jubilee holiday.

TheQueen's Platinum Jubilee logo IT Service Desk will close at 6pm on Wednesday 1st June, and will reopen at 8am on Monday 6th June. This means there will be no telephone service (6262) or ticket processing between these dates.

The IT counter in the library will be open as normal 11am to 5pm Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th June.

Greenlands IT Service will be closed on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd June, and will be open Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th as normal.

Please visit reading.ac.uk/dts for details of our weekend opening hours.

 

World Password Day May 5th – Update your password!

World password day logo

World Password Day takes place on Thursday May 5. It was set up in 2013 as a day set aside for people to update and strengthen their passwords.

The average person has over 100 different passwords for various apps, websites, and online services. In practice most of us re-use the same handful of passwords, and ignore prompts to “update your password” until we are forced to do something. Unfortunately, there are an increasing number of people who will take advantage of this. 

What is the risk?

Password protection is one of the most important things you can do to safeguard your personal, professional, and sensitive data. Without a strong password, you risk:

  • Giving hackers easy access to your most sensitive accounts
  • Breaches to multiple accounts that share the same or similar passwords
  • Attacks by keystroke loggers who steal common login credentials
  • Loss of data through shared (and easily stolen) passwords

How do I make my passwords stronger?

Strong and secure passwords are crucial, especially now that most of our work is done online. Even if you have strong passwords, they need changing regularly as they may have been exposed in a data breach. The strongest passwords are:

  • At least 12 characters long
  • A mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special symbols
  • Not based on your username or other personal information
  • Unique to each account

Our Password page has some more guidance for creating a stronger password.

Further information and reading

As well as the Password page, DTS have several pages dedicated to Cyber Security, https://www.reading.ac.uk/digital-technology-services/cyber-security

For more general information about keeping yourself safe online, have a look at the National Cyber Security Centre website.