Selecting a "Good" Password
UNIX (and Windows® NT) security is predicated on users choosing good passwords and exercising common sense with them.
- do not share your passwords
- change them every 3 to 6 months
- most importantly, maintain different password for each system (Duke Statistics, ACPUB, etc) that you have access to.
A good password should:
- be easy to type
- be easy for you to remember but hard for others to guess or crack
- be 6 to 8 characters long (preferably 8)
- not consist of dictionary words, names, etc.
- contain at least two non-alphabetical characters
- utilize unusual capitalization, misspellings, characters/symbols, etc.
Example Passwords
Use a common word as a seed for a password
- by itself,
hotdogmakes a horrible password - apply some of the tricks above (capitalization, punctuation, and misspellings)
- result, a much better password:
H0t!daWg
Alternatively you can use a phrase to generate a password
- I Love To Eat Hotdogs Everyday.
- take the first letters:
iltehe - apply capatialization and substitute puctuation/numbers
for letters:
Il2e!E
How do I change my Duke Statistics password?
Use the passwd command on any Duke Statistics Unix workstation.