2008 Woodie Awards
UTM online services, email to require more difficult passwords
Sara McIntosh
Issue date: 1/23/07 Section: Technology
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What is the name of the dog you had when you were two? What is your mother's maiden name? What time were you born? What does *&%$#@(-+?) mean for you? These questions combined will now be the inspiration for many student passwords on this campus as a means of protecting their personal information from would-be hackers.
The first step to password protection is to never write it down or share it with anyone. Regardless of the difficult nature of a password, users should always select one that would allow them to remember without having to refer to a note each time they need to use it. This action will open up the door for people in dorms or computer labs to notice your password along with your user name and use it at their discretion to do whatever evils they feel like doing at their leisure.
"I recommend a catch phrase to help people remember their new passwords," said Shannon Burgin, Director of Information Technology Services.
Burgin explained that "one fish two fish red fish blue fish" could be ()F2f|2Fbf.
Students can access the Password Policies link on the http://security.utm.edu site.
Using a memory aide like a mnemonic can be beneficial for student use whenever selecting a good, steroid-laden password.
The great thing about this password change is that because of the myUTMartin Portal, students have easier means of changing their passwords, according to Burgin.
According to the university password policy from October 2006, a "strong password" is recommended for all faculty, staff and students for their personal use on accessing information in the UT network.
At least three out of the four following criteria for these strong passwords should be met in order to be considered a strong password:
• At least one numeric character
• At least one special character, for example !@#$%^&*()
• At least one lower case character
• At least one upper case character
The password must be a minimum of 8 characters.
The first step to password protection is to never write it down or share it with anyone. Regardless of the difficult nature of a password, users should always select one that would allow them to remember without having to refer to a note each time they need to use it. This action will open up the door for people in dorms or computer labs to notice your password along with your user name and use it at their discretion to do whatever evils they feel like doing at their leisure.
"I recommend a catch phrase to help people remember their new passwords," said Shannon Burgin, Director of Information Technology Services.
Burgin explained that "one fish two fish red fish blue fish" could be ()F2f|2Fbf.
Students can access the Password Policies link on the http://security.utm.edu site.
Using a memory aide like a mnemonic can be beneficial for student use whenever selecting a good, steroid-laden password.
The great thing about this password change is that because of the myUTMartin Portal, students have easier means of changing their passwords, according to Burgin.
According to the university password policy from October 2006, a "strong password" is recommended for all faculty, staff and students for their personal use on accessing information in the UT network.
At least three out of the four following criteria for these strong passwords should be met in order to be considered a strong password:
• At least one numeric character
• At least one special character, for example !@#$%^&*()
• At least one lower case character
• At least one upper case character
The password must be a minimum of 8 characters.
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