The Division of Information Technology promotes a secure computing environment and strong passwords for students, staff and faculty. The following best practices of password creation ensure that the GW community will remain safe from online intrusions.
The Do's:
- Make your password at least 8 characters long.
- Use both upper and lower case characters (a, b,
c, D, E, f, etc.)
- Incorporate digit and punctuation characters, as
well as letters (1, 2, 3, !, %, etc.)
- Change passwords periodically, like every two to
four months.
- Choose a password that is easily remembered by
you and ONLY YOU.
The Dont's:
- Reveal a password over the phone, email, BBM, or
text messaging. You never know who that
information is seen or heard by and where it is being saved.
- Use the same password for various login
accounts. Maintaining different
passwords for all of
your accounts prevents potential hackers from accessing
all of your information.
- Include your email or name in the password. Think about how obvious it is!
Examples:
- Mbi5!YOld (My brother is 5 years old)
- lhliCf5#yN (I have lived in California for 5 years now)
