Self Help IO Administrator
	Tips | Manual/Guide | Downloads/Useful Links | Article Highlights Tips Password Security Recommendations A hacker may use one of several methods to break a users password and therefore gain illegal access into a computer system. If knowledge of a users private information is accessible (such as birthdays, names of children, pets etc.) hackers may use this information to guess a password. If this should fail, hackers then try words and numbers in combination with the personal information. Finally, hackers also may try a brute force attack where they will use a program that will try dictionary words as passwords. To minimize the chances of hackers gaining entry into your systems using these methods, the following guidelines should be adhered to when choosing secure passwords: 1. Passwords should not be based on personal information or information about projects that the user is working on. 2. Passwords should not be based on normal dictionary words. 3. Passwords should be of a decent length. The usual recommended minimum is 6 or 8 characters. 4. Passwords should be complex. This means that passwords should be a mixture of these types of characters: - Upper-case letters or capitals (e.g. A, B, C) - Lower-case letters (e.g. a, b, c) - Numbers (e.g. 1,2,3) - Special characters (e.g. !, <, *) Although there are no 100% guarantees that a hacker will not be able to penetrate a systems security features, having strong passwords minimize the risk greatly. As long as the rest of an organizations systems are similarly protected, the watchful administrator can reasonably be sure that the systems under his care will not be cracked on a regular basis.		_____________ Setting up your PC  last update on 09/01/2004 Configuration of Microsoft Outlook XP for InstantOffice last upadate on 29/12/2003