VT Password Info

VT will expire your PID and Hokies passwords once a year.

• How to change all your VT passwords: http://computing.vt.edu/kb/entry/3924
• Creating strong passwords: http://www.awareness.security.vt.edu/passwords/strong_passwords.html

Use a passphrase instead of a password

At the most basic level, a password's strength is derived from it's length. The longer the password, the better. Passphrases tend to be easier to remember and type, while still remaining very strong and hard to crack.

A passphrase of 4 words, "correct horse battery staple" is stronger than a password of 11 characters and high complexity, "Tr0ub4dor&3"

This XKCD comic illustrates the issue: https://xkcd.com/936/

Suggestions for creating a passphrase

• Think of your favorite poem or book.
• Choose a line from your favorite movie.
• Use a nonsensical phrase of words, something that has meaning to you.

Type it out. Make sure it is at least 4 words long. Now, because almost all sites require AlphaNumeric + Special characters, you should capitalize one or more words and add punctuation. Be sure to include spaces.

• Example: Correct horse Battery staple!

Use a password manager

Password managers are programs that will protect and save your account info and passwords to your computer. These programs use a master passphrase to encrypt all of your passwords, making it easy to update and find all of your passwords.

• We recommend using Keepass as your password manager.

Using KeePass

1. Download Keepass Professional Edition (Version 2.X)
2. Install Keepass with the default options
3. Open Keepass
4. Create a new KeePass database: File menu -> New
5. Name the database and save it to your computer
   • We recommend saving the database file to your VT Google Drive folder or Documents folder
6. Enter a Master Password, twice.
   • Again, we recommend using a "Master Passphrase" of 4 or more words with capitols, spaces and punctuation.