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Passwords

Create Passwords

Pass Phrases

Administrator Accounts

keep your passwords secret

Single Sign On (SSO)

SSO Pro's and Con's

Passwords

Why do we use passwords?

Passwords are a form of identitiy when you access a private area of a network, such as a shared drive or a website, such as your bank account. The password is basically used as a way to prove to an authentication system that you are who you say you are. A username and password are usually used together as an absolute minimum to login to any site or shared space.

 

The basics for passwords. Do not make them too easy to crack, never write them down and store them, say, on your monitor. Never tell anyone your password. Follow this page for some basic ideas of how to protect your vital information.

 


Create Passwords

Passwords should be at least 8 characters in length and contain at least 3 of the following 4 types of characters:

Passwords for systems or applications that cannot support the above standard should be longer -- at least 10 characters in length, if possible -- and incorporate the maximum complexity the system or application can support. Ideally, the system should be changed or updated.

 


Pass Phrases

Use pass phrases for creating good, cryptic, hard-to-guess passwords


Administrator Accounts

Disable all built in administrator accounts and set your own policy based accounts

Password should be changed regularly


keep your passwords secret

Do not share your passwords with anyone, or in any way publish them.

 

Avoid writing passwords down.

 

Whenever possible, change passwords to something you can easily remember.

One way to do this is to create a password from a familiar phrase (see Pass Phrases for more information).

 

Once you have a good, strong, memorable password, you can come up with a system to modify it slightly for each system or application. Then you only have to remember your base password and your system.

If you have to write a password down, try to write it in a way that others won't be able to decypher -- such as using a hint for part of it -- and store it securely in a safe place, e.g., not under the keyboard or on your monitor.

 

If you think your password may have been compromised, notify your IT Support and your supervisor immediately.

 


Single Sign On (SSO)

 

Single sign-on is a session / user authentication process that permits a user to enter one name and password in order to access multiple applications. The process authenticates the user for all the applications they have been given rights to and eliminates further prompts when they switch applications during a particular session.

 

Use SSO for only back-end services

 

Use strong

 

Change often

 


SSO Pro's and Con's

Advantages:

 

Disadvantages

 



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