Staff Passwords at York St John University
From January 4 2011 to comply with audit requirements your ICT
password must be complex and you will have to change it every 3
months.
Choosing a strong password
that complies with the new requirements
How to choose a strong password
that is memorable
Keeping your password safe
How to change your password
before it expires
Choosing a strong password that complies with the new
requirements
Choose a password that is at least 8 characters long and then
ensure it meets at least 3 of the following conditions:
- Includes upper case letters
- Includes lower case letters
- Contain at least one number (preferably not just at the end of
the password)
- Use special characters like $, ?, # (ensure you know how to
find these characters on the University printers)
Your password will be set to expire every 3 months and must be
changed to one you have not used previously.
How to choose a strong password that is
memorable
To minimise the risk of password crackers hacking your password
you should choose a password that appears to be a random set of
characters and not a dictionary word.
One suggestion is to select characters that appear to be random
but are memorable is to choose a phrase, line from a song or poem
and then select the first letter from the string of words.
Eg. Let me
take you down
cos I’m going
to Strawberry
Fields will become
lmtydcigtsf.
You can comply with the remainder of the password requirements
by inserting at least one number and making at least one character
a capital. Apply some logic to the placement of the capitals,
numbers and special characters so that you remember where you have
put them. For example, you could put the capital where a name
occurs and the number as substitute for a letter. In this
particular instance you could leave the apostrophe in to meet the
special character requirement.
After adding in the additional requirements your password could
look like this:
lmtydci’gt5F
After 90 days when you have to change your password, maintain
your password security, by for example, choosing the next line of
the song or poem.
Keeping
your password safe
It is important that your password remains secret to only you
and the following guidelines will help you to achieve this:
Do not tell anyone your password under any circumstances, this
includes ICT Services staff. Any request for your password
verbally or electronically such as by email will always be
fraudulent.
Do not write your password down or store it electronically unless
you keep it in encrypted form.
Take care that other people are not shoulder surfing when you are
entering your password.
How
to change your password
On a university computer
- Press the Ctrl and Alt and Delete keys.
- Click on Change a password
- Enter your old and new password where prompted.
- Click on the green arrow.
You will get a message saying your password has been
changed.
Remotely using University Webmail
- Login to your York St John University email account using the
following link: https://email.yorksj.ac.uk/ or by
navigating to “Webmail” from the Staff or Student section of the
York St John University homepage.
- At the login screen for the webmail service enter your username
and current password, you will then be taken to home screen of your
inbox.
- From your inbox you need to click on the
Options button in the top right corner of the
screen. This will change the screen to display the options
available to you and your email account.
- From the options menu and listed on the left hand side of the
screen, click on Change Password.
- From the change password screen enter your current password
(the password you used to login to the Webmail service) in the
Old password box. You then need to enter your new
password in the box marked New Password and
Confirm new password.
- Once you have entered your password click on the
Save button located at the top of the Change
Password screen.
Once you have received confirmation the password change has been
successful you may need to log in again to continue using the
webmail service.