Pitt launches replacement login service

Pitt is updating how users access Pitt’s online services with a new login system, beginning in June.

Pitt Passport — passport.pitt.edu — will replace the My Pitt portal and individual access pages for Pitt services with a single login prompt providing access across all sites. According to a release, Pitt is implementing the new login service to enhance security and streamline logins for Pitt services.

Sean Sweeney, Pitt’s information security officer, said students in particular see various logins while using Pitt services such as CourseWeb, Box and PittSource. 

“This multiplicity of login pages is not only visually confusing but also an opportunity for hackers to more easily mock-up malicious sites designed to collect your account information,” Sweeney said. “In response, [Computing Services and Systems Development is] rolling out a centralized single sign-on page, Pitt Passport, to make it easier for you to know that you are on a site offering secure access to online resources at Pitt.”

Pitt will implement Pitt Passport on a service-by-service basis over the next several months. Pitt Passport replaced My Pitt email for faculty and staff at the end of April and fully replaced Legacy Webmail — an old email system still used by some faculty and staff — on May 28.

Among Pitt Passport’s new features is multi-factor authentication. For specific Pitt services, members of Pitt’s community will be able to add a second “factor” to log in to a service. The two factors include information the person logging in must know — such as a password ­— and a device the person has on them — such as a cell phone to access a login confirmation code. The new feature will be optional for students, faculty and staff, according to the release.

Users will also be able to review their login history and see listings of when their username and password were used to access a Pitt service. If they suspect that someone else has logged in on their account, they will be able to report it immediately on the login history webpage. Their report will create a help ticket sent directly to CSSD, Sweeney said.

CSSD plans to have several key systems — such as My Pitt — replaced with Pitt Passport before classes resume in August, Sweeney said. Pitt Passport will continue toreplace other systems throughout 2017.