Student Accounts and Data Security

Student Accounts [account]

All students are assigned several computer accounts at the beginning of their studies, which are identified by login name and password. The same login name is used for all faculty accounts, starting with the letter 'x', five characters of the surname (possibly supplemented by given name) and two distinguishing characters - eg xsmith13. All faculty accounts of one person initially have the same password. For security reasons, you should change your password as soon as possible (some systems require this). However, because these accounts are independent, changing one's password does not mean changing another.

Which accounts are used?

  • Unix account - is primary account for authentication in the faculty environment. It is used for accessing protected Web pages, for reading and sending e-mail, etc. It is also used to log on to servers, workstations and Linux. Changing the password on any server or Linux also affects the other systems. On computers running Linux will take effect after a system restart or one hour, on other servers within 1 minute. This account is valid throughout the study, allows you to create your own website with the address https://www.stud.fit.vutbr.cz/~xsmith13 and receive e-mail with the address xsmith13@stud.fit.vutbr.cz. Login and initial password can be displayed on the Account Information Page.

  • Account to Microsoft Active Directory (AD). Initially, this account (login and password) settings are the same as the Unix FIT account. However, password changes are independent; if you change your password to AD, this change will not be reflected in Unix and vice versa. You can set the password for AD the same as for the Unix FIT account (recommended).

    This account is used to log in to Microsoft Windows operating systems in classrooms and in the library.

  • Account for authentication to to network (Radius account). Login name is the same but the password is intentionally different because it is stored in an open form and handled less securely. For example, it is allowed to save them in an open form for automatic login to the network on a laptop. This password can be generated on Account administration page and can be changed at any time. The change will take effect immediately.

  • University information system account - VUTlogin. Together with VUTpassword it is used to authenticate into university-wide applications. Some applications may use VUT PIN instead, e.g. VPN, WiFi and OPAC library catalogue.

    All university-wide applications should accept both VUT login and personal ID (printed on your student ID card). VUTlogin is completely independent of faculty accounts and also applies to studies at other BUT faculties. The new student will find the initial account password in the electronic application form..

Rights and duties for utilizing the student accounts are described in the BUT Computer Network Rules which are obligatory for all faculties of the Brno University of Technology.

PhD Student Accounts

The same rules apply to doctoral students as students. If a doctoral student has an employment relationship with FIT, he/she also has an FIT employee account in the form of a isurname. The student account is intended for student affairs (information system, dormitories, etc.).

Account Safety, How to Change a Password

The account may only be used by the user to whom the account has been assigned. It is not allowed to lend the account (password) and thus access to the computer and information systems as another person. In addition, users are obliged not to create opportunities for unauthorized use - for example, by choosing an easy-to-guess password or not keeping it secret. The password should not be:

  • Shorter then 12 characters. Old Unix systems (those that used the old DES algorithm to check the password) only tested the first 8 characters of the password.
  • Username, surname and any names in general.
  • Word from the dictionary (English, Czech), even with the addition of numbers or special characters.
  • Personal number, social security number, ID number, etc.

On FIT Unix servers, it is not allowed to choose your own password, but only to choose one of the randomly generated ones. The Unix password is changed by passwd command, in Windows press CTRL+ALT+DEL, choose Change Password. When changing the password, make sure the Czech keyboard is not turned on - otherwise the password may contain charactes that you will not be able to re-enter.

In case you've forgotten your password, please follow these rules.

A password will be changed after the identity of the person is verified (it is verified whether the user is entitled to use the account). To verify the identity, the student card or any other identification card with photo can be used.

File Security

It must be always assumed that your files can be read from anywhere on Internet. The Administrators take a big effort to avoid it, but in the field of safety it is always necessary to expect the worst possible situations. What can you do for your data safety? The list of activities starting with safest methods to the least safe ones is described below:

  1. Do never store confidential data on the computer!
  2. Process confidential data on the computer, copy the data to the removable media and delete the data after you finish your work!
  3. Encode data with pgp command!
Access rights of your files should be set so they cannot be read by other users (in Unix the chmod og-rw file command can be used, in Windows right-click the file, choose Properties → Security). And keep your password in secret.
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