
Password Security
What can I do to secure confidential and personal data?
The first and easiest step is to change your password frequently. OIT advises you to change your password for Datatel, email, Web Advisor, Black Board, and Windows every 90 days, at a minimum..
To prevent novice hackers from gaining access to your computer or files, experts recommend using complicated passwords. It is best to use passwords that do not contain any personal names or information or any words that can be found in a dictionary. It is also advised that you incorporate lower case and upper case letters as well as numbers and special characters (characters above the numbers on the keyboard like $, #, @, etc). The password “jYg2&Ti5” is significantly harder to crack than “bradley1”. Of course, that password is significantly harder for you to remember as well and it is poor security to write the password down anywhere- especially on a sticky-note attached to your monitor. The previous paragraph was taken from an article on password security; the complete article can be found at http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/generalsecurity/a/aa112103b.htm
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