By Chance Love, Student Reporter
Keeping information secure online is a big hassle, and college students are prime targets for identity theft.
Students can — and should — take several steps to safeguard their online identities, said Northwestern computer science instructor Evan Vaverka.
“Figure out a system that works for you so that you can have multiple passwords,” Vaverka said.
Having multiple passwords is not about making them strikingly different from one another, but trying to add different characters to the passwords that will make them more harder for hackers to break.
Amid an increase in cyberattacks across the globe, Vaverka said digital security problems can arise when students get involved in online banking or other financial matters. College students normally have a clean credit history, so it is easier for them to get loans in some instances, thus exposing their personal information.
“Students trying to tap into their credit history by accounts being opened in their name, or someone using their information to request a small loan, plays a huge part in hackers getting information,” he said.
Phishing is a common problem for colleges and universities, including Northwestern. Hackers pose as a trusted entity and try to exploit students’ trust by tricking them into providing sensitive information such as passwords.
“The end goal isn’t to get on your Snapchat or Discord to cause problems,” Vaverka said. “It’s to try and get it to use somewhere else, such as banks.”