Why did I get an email about a third-party release of information?
The Queen’s IT Services Security team recently became aware of a publication of credential information from an alleged breach of the Chronicle of Higher Education. This event may have potentially affected multiple account holders here at Queen’s. As a precaution, Queen’s IT Services will expire the passwords of any Queen’s accounts found to be listed in the publication, and who have not changed their passwords since March 1, 2020.

What should I do to protect myself?
If you received an email message from IT Services concerning the third-party release of information and have not changed your password since March 1, 2020 you will be sent additional emails from IT Services requesting you to change your password, prior to your password expiring. NetID passwords are changed at https://netid.queensu.ca/selfservice/login/auth
We also encourage you to take the following actions to better protect yourself and your information:

1. Do not reuse passwords across your accounts.


2. If you have used your Queen’s password on multiple sites, we strongly encourage you to change that password on every other site where it has been used.


3. Be extra diligent of scams that may reference your account.

What data was published?
According to reports, the release of information included usernames and cracked passwords.

Why is Queen’s expiring passwords for accounts that had information published?
Queen’s account holders who fail to follow safe password practices are at risk when breaches like this occur. To protect your Queen’s account IT Services are taking this action to prevent account compromises by ensuring all accounts associated with the breach have refreshed passwords since March 1, 2020.

What caused the data breach?
We have no direct information about the cause of the breach. IT Services obtain breach information from several services, including “Have I Been Pwned?”. Visiting the website https://haveibeenpwned.com/ will allow you to enter and check your Queen’s University email address against all publicized breaches that reference your Queen’s email address. The site also provides details about the data breach, including links to additional information.