Choosing a good password

A weak password can easily be guessed by a third party, which could compromise security of our network and services. For example, your login name, phone number, spouse name, or any word in a dictionary, are not good passwords. A good password should:

• be at least eight characters long,
• use a combination of letters, digits and symbols (for example, substitute a letter with a digit, such as “b1ngobrav0” instead of “bingobravo”,
• use both lower and uppercase.

In order to make your password easier to remember, you may think of a memorable sentence as a starter and then pick first letters, substitute digits, etc.

There are numerous articles on the Web on this topic: for example see McGill’s guidelines on good passwords.

You may also test your password strength on Password Meter. A good password should be in the green area.

See this article for instructions on how to change your network password.