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Password

Password Security

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NACS has recently upgraded its password infrastructure to allow for longer passwords. Longer passwords are more secure because it becomes prohibitively difficult to discover a password by computationally grinding through all the possibilities. The “rules” for choosing a good password still stand: use a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and punctuation; don’t use recognizable strings (dictionary words, runs of keys as they appear on the keyboard, multiple copies of the same letter) or personal information (name, UCInetID, birthday, employee ID number). A summary of password guidelines can be found at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/ucinetid/password.html

It is also strongly recommended to change your password at least once a year. Long-lived passwords accumulate risk as the number of times and places they are used increases. One of the major risks today’s users are exposed to are so-called “key loggers,” small programs that hide on a computer and watch everything that is typed. Regular security scans (e.g., virus checkers), applying security patches, and caution with regard to opening email attachments or visiting unfamiliar web sites will help protect you from key loggers.

Security may seem inconvenient, and costs the University resources that we’d rather use in other ways, but it is an inescapable part of providing reliable network services, and much cheaper than the loss of valuable research data or identity theft. NACS will continue to watch the security landscape, make necessary advances in network security, and work with users and departments to help protect UCI.

Manage Your Password

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An increasing number of network resources are accessible using your UCInetID and password. This is a convenience analogous to a master key, but as with such a key, you want to be very careful to protect it.

You should plan to change your UCInetID password with some regularity, perhaps once a quarter. NACS’s tools for managing your UCInetID have been improved in several ways which will make UCInetIDs more secure, and help you manage your password.

Choosing a password can be a daunting task. You must choose one that no one can guess but you can remember! To make passwords more difficult to guess, the “rules” for a valid password include:

  • Password must be between 6-8 characters.
  • Password must contain at least one alpha character [a-z]. Note that passwords are case-sensitive – they can have both upper and lower case letters.
  • Password must contain at least one non-alpha character, which is neither the first nor last character.
  • Password can’t contain any part of your name, forward or reverse.

The most significant recent change to these rules is that all the standard printable non-alphabetic characters are allowed, and since using such characters makes a password harder to guess or crack, NACS encourages their use.

With a more obscure password, there is always the risk that you yourself will lose your password. NACS now allows you to select a secret “question and answer” that allows you to reset your UCInetID password.

More information about UCInetID passwords is available at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/ucinetid/password.html .

Help for activating or resetting your UCInetID password is at http://ucinetid1.nacs.uci.edu/activate/menu.html .