Intro to... Passwords

Home ITS Services Accounts Intro to... Passwords

• About Passwords
• Selecting a good password
• Changing your password
• Forgotten or unknown password
• Requesting Password reset
• How long does it take to reset a password?
• Other links

About Passwords

Your account login and the password act as the primary security for access to a computer system and related services. You may have several accounts and passwords depending upon the types of systems and services associated with your duties and needs, each login and password determining access to services.

Selecting a Good Password

• Easy to remember
• Six characters long
• A mixture of numbers, punctuation marks, and mixed-case letters
• A seemingly random selection of letters and numbers.

• Choose a line or two from a song or poem, and use the first letter of each word. For example, "In Xanadu did Kulba Khan a stately pleasure dome decree" becomes "IXdKKaspdd"
• Choose two mixed-case short words and concatenate them together with a punctuation character between them. For example, "Dog;Rain", "bOOk+mUg", "kiD?Goat".

• Don't use a password shorter than six characters
• Don't use your login name in any form: as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled.
• Don't use any real or abbreviated word in any language
• Don't use your first or last or spouse's or child's name in any form.
• Don't use other information easily obtained about you. This includes license plate numbers, telephone numbers, social security numbers, the brand of your automobile, the name of the street where you life, etc.
• Don't use an all numeric password, or all the same letter
• Don't use keyboard sequences, such as "querty"
• Don't use a default password or sample password such as those in the section above.
• Don't write your password down or keep it on-line.

Changing your Password

Some systems required passwords to be changed periodically. Even if not forced to, it is a good idea to change your password every month or so. Always change your password if you think that someone has learned it, and never give your password to anyone else. Every system is different in detail, but most systems change passwords on request. The system will ask for your old password, and then ask for the new password twice. Passwords don't show on screen, so the new password is requested twice to guard against typographical errors. To learn how to change the password of your UCSC account, see Changing your UCSC account password.

Forgotten or Unknown Password

It is not unusual to forget a password, especially if an account isn't used frequently. Some administrative systems are designed to lock you out of your account if you don't use it, or if a specific number of wrong passwords are tried.

Once your password is forgotten, it must be reset by either the ITS Support Center or the administrator of a departmental system. To have your UCSC Account password reset, please stop by the ITS Support Center which is located in Kerr Hall room 54 for staff/faculty and room 62 for students. Our hours of operation are 8am to 5pm. Please bring your Student ID or a picture ID with you when you stop by.

Requesting Password Reset

Because we cannot possibly identify everyone by voice, ITS staff will not change passwords over the telephone. You need to come to the ITS Service Center with a photo id and campus id to have us change your password.   You may call ahead and request a password reset by telephone, but you must present yourself and your id at the ITS Support Center before we can issue it to you.

How long does it take to reset a password?

• UCSC accounts: will be reset within 24 hours, usually sooner.
• FIS, SIS, NES, DWH: will be reset within 24 hours. You will be called when your password has been reset.
• PPS: are reset at UCOP, usually within 6 hours. You will be called when your password has been reset.

Revisited 1/08