1. Please wait a few minutes after changing your password before you try to use the new one.
2. Passwords should contain at least:
   1. eight characters
   2. one Capital letter
   3. one small letter
   4. one symbol or number.

How to fill out the form: An "example" is shown below

CAUTION: The most elaborate security system in the world is only as good as it's users. Don't give anyone your password. If you suspect your account may be compromised, please change your password and notify your Department network administrator immediately.

REMEMBER YOUR USER NAME AND PASSWORD. Your password is your responsibility. The system administrator does not know what your password is.

SECURE PASSWORDS: You will be asked to set a new password for your account every six months. Passwords are a minimum of eight alphanumeric characters (punctuation marks and other symbols characters are allowed). You cannot repeat your previous password. Passwords CANNOT be all small or all capital letters unless at least one number and/or symbol is added. Passwords are case-sensitive.

The following are not allowed:

1. Your own last name or initials
2. Any proper or common names by themselves
3. Words found in a standard English dictionary by themselves
4. A common series of letters or numbers (e.g., QWERTY or 54321)
5. Names of Months, Seasons, or days of the Week
6. Sporting terms

Examples:

1. Allowed
   1. !yM953ff
   2. a2dx>mPY
   3. gv2SWPTe
2. Not Allowed
   1. ntraefgd
   2. 12345678
   3. Josephine

Strong passwords

The role that passwords play in securing an organization's network is often underestimated and overlooked. Passwords provide the first line of defense against unauthorized access to your organization.

Weak passwords provide attackers with easy access to your computers and network, while strong passwords are considerably harder to crack, even with the password-cracking software that is available today. Password-cracking tools continue to improve, and the computers that are used to crack passwords are more powerful than ever. Password-cracking software uses one of three approaches: intelligent guessing, dictionary attacks, and brute-force automated attacks that try every possible combination of characters. Given enough time, the automated method can crack any password. However, strong passwords are much harder to crack than weak passwords. A secure computer has strong passwords for all user accounts.

A weak password:

1. Is no password at all.
2. Contains your user name, real name, or company name.
3. Contains a complete dictionary word. For example, Password is a weak password.

A strong password:

1. Is at least seven characters long.
2. Does not contain your user name, real name, or company name.
3. Does not contain a complete dictionary word.
4. Is significantly different from previous passwords. Passwords that increment (Password1, Password2, Password3 ...) are not strong.
5. Contains characters from each of the following four groups:

An example of a strong password is J*p2leO4>F.

A password can meet most of the criteria of a strong password but still be rather weak. For example, Hello2U! is a relatively weak password even though it meets most of the criteria for a strong password and also meets the complexity requirements of password policy. H!elZl2o is a strong password because the dictionary word is interspersed with symbols, numbers, and other letters. It is important to educate users about the benefits of using strong passwords and to teach them how to create passwords that are actually strong. 

You can create passwords that contain characters from the extended ASCII character set. Using extended ASCII characters increases the number of characters that you can choose when you create a password. As a result, it might take more time for password-cracking software to crack passwords that contain these extended ASCII characters than it does to crack other passwords. Before using extended ASCII characters in your password, test them thoroughly to make sure that passwords containing extended ASCII characters are compatible with the applications that your organization uses. Be especially cautious about using extended ASCII characters in passwords if your organization uses several different operating systems. 

You can find extended ASCII characters in Character Map. Some extended ASCII characters should not be used in passwords. Do not use a character if a keystroke is not defined for it in the lower-right corner of the Character Map dialog box. For more information about how to use Character Map, see Using Character Map. 

Examples of passwords that contain characters from the extended ASCII character set are kUµ!¶0o and Wf©$0k#»g¤5ªrd.

Windows passwords can be up to 127 characters long