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1200 West University Ave
Mitchell, SD 57301
Phone:
605-995-2697
E-mail: helpdesk@dwu.edu
Web: http://www.dwu.edu/is//
What is a good password?
Good
computer security includes the use of strong passwords for your network
logon and the Administrator account on your computer.
For a
password to be strong and hard to break, it should:
· Be at
least seven characters long.
· Contain characters from each of the following three groups:
|
Description |
Examples |
|
Letters (uppercase and lowercase) |
A, B, C,...; a, b, c,... |
|
Numerals |
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 |
|
Symbols (all characters not defined as
letters or numerals) |
` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + - = { } | [ ] \ :
" ; ' < > ? , . / |
· Have
at least one symbol character in the second through sixth positions.
· Be
significantly different from prior passwords.
· Not
contain your name or user name.
· Not
be a common word or name.
Passwords can be the weakest link in a computer security scheme. Strong
passwords are important because password cracking tools continue to improve
and the computers used to crack passwords are more powerful. Network
passwords that once took weeks to break can now be broken in hours.
Password cracking software uses one of three approaches: intelligent
guessing, dictionary attacks, and automation that tries every possible
combination of characters. Given enough time, the automated method can crack
any password. However, it still can take months to crack a strong password.
Windows 2000 passwords can be up to 127 characters long. However, if you are
using Windows 2000 on a network that also has computers using Windows 95 or
Windows 98, consider using passwords not longer than 14 characters.
Windows 95 and Windows 98 support passwords of up to 14 characters. If your
password is longer, you may not be able to log on to your network from those
computers.
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