Choosing a Good Password

Your password is the key to your account - it is the main protection you have against someone else misusing your account, interfering with your files, using your account as a base to break into other systems/accounts, or in other ways embarrassing you.

A good password

should not be in a dictionary.
should not be a proper name, especially not your name or login name.
should be something uncommon, which people who know you would not guess.
should preferably be at least 6 characters long, or better still, 8 characters.

If you are a touch typist, try to choose something that uses alternating hands on the keyboard, so that people watching can't tell what it is.

Possible methods:

think of a phrase or sentence and take the first letter of each word.
combine two words, possibly stripping off the first or last letter from one of them. The combined word should not be a word.
include an uppercase letter (not the first letter though) or digit or punctuation. Remember that you should be able to type the password quickly.

Don't write your password down anywhere, or leave it on a file in the system. Memorize it, and keep it in memory only! Change your password occasionally.

You can use this link to change your password. It will take about an hour for your password to take effect. If you try to use the new password and it doesn't work... try your old password. If you have trouble with your password contact the office.

Here are some other tips on choosing a good password.

Addenum: 2011

Everything we know is wrong.

The best explanation ever of password strength and human memory comes to us from xkcd.com, the webcomic by mathematician Randall Munroe.