Securing your account

Authentication

There are two primary authentication mechanisms that are used to connect to a cluster: passwords and SSH keys. Below are some best practices for both methods.

Password best practices

• Users are strongly encouraged to use unique passwords, and to never reuse them.
• Passwords are sensitive confidential information and users must never share or disclose them by any means. Users should also refrain from disclosing tips that could help identify their passwords.
• Users are encouraged to never write down a password. In the situation where a user needs to write or store his password on a given media, it is acceptable to do so given that the appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized access are in place (encryption, strong password protection, etc.). A user should never store or write a password to facilitate access or transfer between information systems.
• Users are encouraged to not use the "remember your password" feature of browser or operating systems.

Resetting your password

If you think that your password may have been compromised, you can reset it through this page.

SSH keys best practices

SSH keys can be a good way to authenticate to your account without typing your password every time. However, to be secure, it is imperative that SSH keys use a strong passphrase that is treated like a password.

Treat the private key as a security token, even when encrypted with a passphrase. Avoid putting a private key on any shared machine. Placing an unencrypted private key on the clusters is a huge security hole.

For technical details on implementing SSH keys for your account, please see this page.

General best practices

Sharing data

When trying to share data, it can be considered convenient to change filesystem permissions to allow everyone to read or write to some files. This can compromise your account if not done properly. Please see our Sharing data page.

For the system you log in from

Security issues often start on the outside, by a third party getting access to a user's password or (passwordless) ssh key. To help prevent this, please:

• Log in from trusted computers only;
• On Windows computers, make sure to regularly run a virus scanner and malware scanner;
• Regardless of what Operating System you have, keep up to date with security updates for all software;
• Do not leave your computer or laptop unattended.