Welcome to Mount Royal University!! As new student, the beginning of the semester can be overwhelming. Form after form to fill out. One notice after another to read. It can be a bit much. As you are navigating all of this, largely online, you are vulnerable to cyberattacks. Attachers want nothing more than to get a hold of your MRU login credentials so they can grab as much data as they can and sell it. However, there are a few simple things that you can do to protect yourself.
Multifactor authentication (MFA) secures your account even if your password is compromised. With MFA, once you enter your password, you are asked for a second factor to verify that you own the account. The second factor could be a text message sent to your phone, a code from an authentication app or pushing the button on an authentication key. Mulifactor authentication is so successful at preventing unauthorized account access that cyberinsurance permiums are lower for those organizations who mandate it.
Enabling MFA on your MRU email account is mandatory. It protects not only your MRU email account, but all your Google workspace documents and your D2L access. You will have a grace period between the time that you are given your MRU email address and the deadline to enable MFA. During that time you will be sent mulitple email reminders. If you do not enable MFA before the deadline, you will be locked out of your MRU email and D2L. To regain access you will have to contact the IT Service Desk at 403-440-6000.
It can be extremely challenging to create a new password everytime you create a new account. As a result, most people reuse passwords. While this is convenient, it is dangerous. If someone steals the login credentials from an account provider, they can then access all the accounts that use the same username and password. Password managers eliminate that risk by generating unique passwords and storing them for you. You only need to create and rremember the password for the password manager.
We recommend you use Bitwarden as your password manager, it is easy to use and free to download.