Guide to Passwords
Weak and re-used passwords are the most common way for adversaries to take control of online accounts. To protect yourself, always use a strong password or passphrase that's hard to guess by strangers and even people you know. The best way to make strong, unique passwords is with a password manager. Brandeis faculty, staff and students can use LastPass for free to manage all of their passwords.
Password requirements for Brandeis accounts
According to Brandeis' requirements, passwords must contain at least 15 characters. Passwords may contain:
- A combination of upper- and lowercase characters
- A number or special character, such as * ! _ $ # & % @ ^ = ~ + - or even spaces
Note: Longer passphrases will reduce complexity requirements when setting your Brandeis password.
Passwords cannot be equal to a current password or password reset answer; equal to your Brandeis username or name; or a single word that appears in the dictionary (English or non-English). Passwords must be composed only of characters in the Roman alphabet, numbers or symbols on the U.S. keyboard. (Examples include characters such as # $ % ! @.)
Tips for creating strong passwords
Brandeis' IT Security Office recommends a password of 15 or more characters, composed of words or phrases (a.k.a. a passphrase). Every password you use should be unique to that site, not something you use elsewhere or have used previously. This is simplified with a password manager, like LastPass, but for those accounts where you need to know the password by heart, use the guidance below to make strong passwords.
Longer passwords are better because the increased length means it takes hackers and their password-cracking tools longer to guess or brute-force the password. We recommend stringing together 4 or more words that are not related to each other or to you. For example, you might start with:
flower wall brown cat
Now add some capitalization, symbols or numbers to make the password harder to guess:
Flower wall br0wn cats!
This password is 23 characters, but easy to remember and type. The length makes it difficult for a hacker to guess or crack. To test your password strength, try this calculator. Using the examples above, one can see that the original password is already high scoring, but adding a little bit of complexity and a couple of extra characters increases the password strength.
Manage passwords with LastPass
The best way to create strong, unique passwords for all of the various sites used today is to use a password manager. Brandeis subscribes to LastPass, and it is available for Brandeis faculty, staff and students for free. Learn more about LastPass.