How do I create a complex password?

Changing passwords is simply part of the world we live in. Changing passwords helps to protect your information and protect the university. Spammers and hackers look for accounts with weak or compromised passwords and gain access to these accounts to conduct attacks on other systems. It is not just your information or the information of the university you are protecting by changing your passwords frequently, but you are helping to prevent your account from being used to send spam and exploit other systems on the Internet. Changing passwords is part of being a good citizen in the connected world we all live and work in.

A good to way to secure your account is to create a complex password. Complex passwords are combinations of keyboard characters such as capital letters, lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. The combination of these characters should not include a dictionary word from any language because the password can be then susceptible to a dictionary attack program. A dictionary attack program is listings of words, including other languages, which are encrypted and then compared to the encrypted password. If the patterns match, the program could get your password.

Ashland University network password requirements:

1. Your password needs to be at least 8 characters long
2. Your password cannot contain your first name, last name or username.
3. Make sure that your network password has at least 3 of the 4 kinds of possible characters:

• Uppercase letters, for example: A, B, Z
• Lowercase letters, for example: a,b,z
• Numbers, for example: 1,2,3
• Symbols, for example: !, @, #

Weak passwords are passwords that are easily guessable or discernable from interacting with the individual.

Avoid the following:

• Your first name, last name, or login name, in any form
• Consecutive or repetitive numbers or letters such as 12345678 or AAAAAAAA
• Adjacent keyboard letters such as qwerty or asdfghjk
• Common and obvious letter-number replacements (e.g. replace the letter O with number 0)
• Easily guessed personal information such as names and significant dates for yourself, family members, pets and close acquaintances
• Easily obtained information, such as:

- Address
- License plate numbers
- Telephone numbers
- Credit card or ATM numbers
- Social Security or Social Insurance numbers
- Email addresses
- Dictionary words, in any language, forward and backward
- Popular book titles, movie titles, or phrases

How to create a complex password – Method 1

Here is an easy way to create a memorable complex password.

1. 1. Choose a phrase that you can remember easily. Our example will be the first two lines of the Ashland University Alma Mater.
   i.e. “Remember your days at Ashland, Remember when you’re away”
    
2. 2. Choose the first letter of each of the words and write them together.
   i.e. rydaarwya
    
3. 3. Determine if the letters contain a dictionary word.
   i.e. rydaarwya does not contain a dictionary word
    
4. 4. To add complexity, capitalize one or two letters.
   i.e. ryDaarWya
    
5. 5. To create more complexity (and fulfill requirements), add a few digits or symbols to the password.
   i.e. 4ryDaarWya$
    
6. 6. The last item is to check that your newly formed password is at least 8 characters in length
   .i.e. 4ryDaarWya$ This password has eleven characters.

How to create a complex password – Method 2

Here is an easy way to create similar, but different passwords for websites by using a formula. You can use any formula as a template to create passwords. For this method, we will use a phrase, a month, symbols and part of the website name.

1. 1. Think of a phrase that you can remember easily.
   i.e. This is my favorite website.
    
2. 2. Choose the first letter of each of the words and write them together.
   i.e. timfw
    
3. 3. Capitalize at least one letter.
   i.e. tiMfw
    
4. 4. Add two numbers to indicate a month that we created the password.
   i.e. tiMfw08

   The first part of your password, which is above, does not change. The second part of your password changes depending on which website you are accessing.
    

5. 5. Add a hyphen and a couple of letters to indicate the website for example –fb for Facebook or -eb for Ebay
   i.e. tiMfw08-fb, tiMfw08-eb

Remember not to give your password to anyone. Also, do not post your password where anyone will be able to see it.
 

Downloadable Instructions