A good password is a system for creating codes that are easy to remember but hard to crack. Here are guidelines for creating effective and memorable passwords:
- Choose a phrase that’s at least 8 words long. It could be a book, a song title or quote. Draw your core password from that, perhaps by using the first letter of each word. For example, the first letters of the book title The Cat in the Hat by Doctor Seuss are: tcithbds. This step protects you from an attack where someone tries to crack your phrase using known words and proper names.
- Now alter some of it. Replace some lowercase letters with capital letters or numbers or symbols. For example: Tc1thbdS capitalizes the first and last letter and replaces the “i” with a “1”.
- Establish different levels of passwords. Use a core phrases to develop passwords for systems provided by Fordham and separate passwords for online banking, and other personal, non-Fordham related accounts. If you can’t change your password every 90 days, do so whenever daylight-saving time starts and stops.