On Sept. 10, Nikki Imai, Director of Library and Technology at Sage Hill School, sent two emails to faculty, staff and students warning them of an email username and password leak throughout the Gmail community, the Google-sponsored email service.

More than 5 million passwords were hacked last week which could affect anybody who uses Gmail as their email service. Luckily, Sage’s Google-related services were not affected, according to Imai’s email.

“That particular [leak] didn’t hit us that hard because we’re sort of a little island when it comes to that,” Imai said. “Your Sage account isn’t on Google; it’s here and we just get you to Google.”

Though Sage wasn’t drastically affected by this Gmail leak, Imai used it as a chance to remind the community to change passwords often, as students, faculty and staff who use the same passwords for many services are more at risk.

“Your password is only as good as who knows it and how complex it is, so no matter how amazing the password is. If you have a post-it note with it next to your screen, then it’s not very secure,” Imai said.

The complexity of passwords determines their risk of being guessed, so Imai recommends using both uppercase and lowercase letters, and also numbers in passwords. She also suggests that strong passwords are words that are neither in the dictionary nor obvious, such as your name or a pet’s name.

“It’s just another reminder that once it’s on the Internet, it’s out there,” Imai said.