Security Center

First let us say, the security measures we put in place both within our software and our servers are only as good as your passwords. If you do not choose good, safe, effective passwords, then you have already failed the first step in security. Tips for choosing a good password can be found here: http://safecomputing.uchicago.edu/passwords/

The first step will be to login to your Control Panel (this is the same Url as the User Login link on your homepage) using your administration username and password. You will want to click on the icon that is circled in this image (Security Center) in order to manage this area.

Once you access the Security Center, you will see the following options:

Home

Settings

IP Blocking

Security Report

 Home
Clicking this icon will return you to the Control Panel area.

 Settings
Here you will find some basic security settings which we have allowed to be customizable by the Admin.

Brute-force prevention - IPs are banned after a certain number of failed login attempts, which can be configured by the administrator.  The admin can configure the number of attempts before lockouts occur (based on whether it was an admin account or user account that the visitor was trying to login to), and he can also set a maximum number of login failures total, so that an attacker can't just, for example, try two common passwords on each account. Last but not least, he can configure the lockout time for each of these lockout types as well.

We strongly recommend allowing at least three login attempts for admins and at least six login attempts for users. Many new users will have trouble logging in the first few times and setting this number too low will create support issue for yourself.

 IP Blocking
This area is set up so that the admin can review the banned IP list, and add/remove IP addresses as necessary.

 Security Report
Here the admin can get an at-a-glance overview of anything out-of-the-ordinary that may have taken place on his site.