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.

For example, a passphrase of 4 words and 28 characters, "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

• Choose some words from your favorite poem, book or movie, preferably at random.
• Use a nonsensical phrase of words, something that has meaning to you.
• Choose words at random!
• DON'T use common phrases, such as "An apple a day..."
• Try to limit any personal information (names, dates, addresses) in the passphrase

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

Windows

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.

OS X or Linux