Keeping your password secret is your assurance that your account and its contents remain secure.  In the Maseeh College implementation of UNIX, passwords must be at least six characters long. Passwords must contain a combination of three of the following: lowercase and uppercase letters, digits, and symbols.

Good passwords contain characters that include a combination of alpha, numeric and punctuation.

Avoid anything that could be directly or indirectly associated with the user (such as name, date of birth, etc.)

A password CAN NOT contain:

• control characters
• [ALT]-modified keys
• function keys
• Our network uses a password checker that will automatically test and reject passwords that it considers vulnerable.

Periodic change of passwords is the Unix user’s best way to further ensure the security of network accounts and servers. We have no formal policy for how often Unix passwords must be changed, but we recommend once every three months.

Go to http://www.cat.pdx.edu/chpasswd.html to change your UNIX password. You can test potential passwords with the checkpasswd command.

Type checkpasswd at the command prompt to check potential passwords without changing your password on the system. It will give you helpful messages about the passwords you type, and guide you towards a safe password. Type Control-D to exit the program.