URZ

UNIVERSITY COMPUTING CENTRE

Passwords are today the basis of authentication of users against computer systems. In addition to verifying the legitimacy of a login, passwords are also used to encrypt data.

The following rules must be met when choosing your password:

• the password must be at least 12 characters long,
• a relatively secure password must consist of a mixture of (at least one) uppercase letters (A - Z), lowercase letters (a - z) and digits (0 - 9), but not umlauts or ß,
• there must be at least one of the following special characters # % & ( ) * + , . _ : ; < = > ? but not a blank (space character)
  Attention. Please consider the allowed characters of your applications!
• it should be easy to remember so you don't have to write it down,
• it should not be a word or name of a known language,
• it should not be a keyboard sequence like e.g. "qwerty" or "asdfgh,
• password should be entered unobserved,
• the password should be meaningless for other users.

To get a secure and easy to remember password, there are 3 methods:

1. You string together the first letters of the words in a sentence (not a proverb). The resulting password generally makes no sense. You just need to remember the sentence. e.g.: I study at the university for 4 years isAtUf4Y
2. You can also string syllables together randomly. This usually results in a password that you can pronounce (makes it easier to remember), but which is still not a word in the true sense. e.g.: litmablu li3Ma#lu
3. You take a word and insert digits and/or special characters between the letters e.g.: U,n!ver#Si+y instead of  university

If you no longer know your password, you can reset it online. The prerequisite for this is that you have previously entered your private Email address.

Help is also available at the IT-Service-Point.