Password Policy
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Rationale
The object when choosing a password is to make it as difficult as possible for someone to make educated guesses about what you've chosen. This leaves them no alternative but a brute-force search, trying every possible combination of letters, numbers, and punctuation. A search of this sort, even conducted on a machine that could try one million passwords per second (most machines can try less than one hundred per second), would require, on the average, over one hundred years to complete.
Policy
Network (email) passwords are set to expire every 90 days. All passwords are restricted to a minimum of 8 characters and should contain alpha number characters.
New Passwords
After receiving a new password from Computer Center staff, it is very important that you change it during your first login.
What Not To Use
- Don't use your login name in any form (as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled, etc.).
- Don't use your first or last name in any form.
- Don't use use your spouse's or child's name.
- Don't use other information easily obtained about you. This includes license plate numbers, telephone numbers, social security numbers, the brand of your automobile, the name of the street you live on, etc.
- Don't use a password of all digits, or all the same letter. This significantly decreases the search time for a cracker.
- Don't use a word contained in dictionaries (English or foreign language), spelling lists, or other lists of words.
What To Use
- Do use a password with mixed-case alphabetic, numeric and special characters.
- Do use a password that is easy to remember, so you don't have to write it down.
- Do use a password that you can type quickly, without having to look at the keyboard. This makes it harder for someone to steal your password by watching over your shoulder.
