Safeguard yourself and your data – avoid common mistakes, take steps to select strong passwords and choose to improve your password security.
Create a strong password
- Use fifteen or more characters (the more characters, the harder it is to crack)
- Use words that normally don’t go together, (e.g. “H0rseCampFirePigeon”)
- Make the password something you can remember, but with no personal significance.
Passwords should not be:
- shorter than 15 characters
- a group of letters or numbers that are consecutive, either forwards or backwards (e.g. ABCDEF, FEDBCA, 123456 or 654321)
- a group of identical letters or numbers (e.g. AAAAAA or 111111)
- a common keyboard shortcut (e.g. ASDFG or QWERTY)
- your name or user ID, or any variation or portion of (such as your name or user ID spelled backwards)
- (a) word(s) that can be easily associated with you, e.g. the name of your spouse, child or pet
- something directly related to your job or the Institute (e.g. “bcit” or “instructor”)
Enhance your password security
- Never write your password down
- Never share your password with others
- Change your password at regular intervals (every three months)
- Use a different password for each electronic account that you have
- Avoid adding one more character or incrementing a number for a new password.