Creating a Strong Password

Creating and using a strong password is a necessity to keep your mailbox safe from hackers.  Hackers are skilled programmers that create and modify software to electronically break into accounts, computers, e-mail accounts, etc.  They use password cracking programs to determine what your password is.  Once they have your password, they can gain access to your account and your information is in jeopardy.

To ensure your information is safe we recommend that you use a strong password and that you change it once every three months at the minimum.

Strong Passwords Recommendations:

• Should be between 8-12 characters long.
• Should be Alpha-numeric
• Should contain one lowercase and one uppercase letter.
• Must contain one number or special character.
  • Do not use:
        Left parenthesis "("
        Right parenthesis  ")"
        Period "."
        Ampersand "&"
        Exclamation point "!"
    
    
• Don't use your login name, or names, in any form (as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled, etc.).
• Don't use your first or last name in any form.
• Don't use a password of all digits, or all the same letter. This significantly decreases the search time for a hacker.
• Don't use a word contained in English or foreign language dictionaries.
• Don't use a password shorter than eight characters.