Summary

The purpose of this policy is to establish a standard for creation of strong passwords, the protection of those passwords, and the frequency of changeThe individual with primary responsibility is the Network Administrator and the back-up designee. 

Passwords are an important aspect of computer security. They are the front line of protection for user accounts. A poorly chosen password may result in the compromise of William Woods University's entire network. Thus, all William Woods University employees (including contractors and vendors with access to William Woods University systems) are responsible for taking the appropriate steps, as outlined below, to select and secure their passwords.

The scope of this policy includes faculty, staff and students who have or are responsible for an account (or any form of access that supports or requires a password) on any system that resides at any William Woods University facility, has access to the William Woods University network, or stores any non-public William Woods University information.

All system-level passwords (e.g., root, enable, 2000 admin, application administration accounts, etc.) must be changed on at least a quarterly basis.  All user-level passwords (e.g., email, web, desktop computer, etc.) must be changed at least every six months. The recommended change interval is every four months.  Passwords should never be inserted into email messages or other forms of electronic communication.  All user-level and system-level passwords must conform to the guidelines described below.

Guidelines

A.  General Password Construction Guidelines

Passwords are used for various purposes at William Woods University. Some of the more common uses include: user level accounts, web accounts, email accounts, screen saver protection, voicemail password, and local switch logins. Since very few systems have support for one-time tokens (i.e., dynamic passwords which are only used once), everyone should be aware of how to select strong passwords.

• Poor, weak passwords have the following characteristics:
• The password contains less than eight characters
• The password is a word found in a dictionary (English or foreign)
• The password is a common usage word such as: dog, desk, apple, etc.
• Names of family, pets, friends, co-workers, fantasy characters, etc.
• Computer terms and names, commands, sites, companies, hardware, software.
• The words "William Woods University", "Fulton", "owls" or any derivation.
• Birthdays and other personal information such as addresses and phone numbers.
• Word or number patterns like aaabbb, qwerty, zyxwvuts, 123321, etc.
• Any of the above spelled backwards.
• Any of the above preceded or followed by a digit (e.g., secret1, 1secret)

Strong passwords have the following characteristics that are required for all WWU users:

• Contain both upper and lower case characters (e.g., a-z, A-Z)
• Have digits and punctuation characters as well as letters e.g., 0-9, <>?,./">!@#$%^&*()_+|~-=\`{}[]:";'<­
• Are at least eight alphanumeric characters long.
• Are not words in any language, slang, dialect, jargon, etc.
• Are not based on personal information, names of family, etc.
• Passwords should never be written down or stored on-line. Try to create passwords that can be easily remembered. One way to do this is create a password based on a song title, affirmation, or other phrase. For example, the phrase might be: "This May Be One Way To Remember" and the password could be: "TmB1w2R!" or "Tmb1W>r~" or some other variation.

NOTE: Do not use either of these examples as passwords!

B. Password Protection Standards

Do not use the same password for William Woods University accounts as for other non-William Woods University access (e.g., personal ISP account, option trading, benefits, etc.). Where possible, don't use the same password for various William Woods University access needs. For example, select one password for the Jenzabar and a separate password for email and network. These should be different from your home ISP or electronic banking password.

WilliamWoods University passwords should not be shared with anyone, including faculty, staff or students. All passwords are to be treated as sensitive, confidential William Woods University information.

Here is a list of “don'ts”:

• Don't reveal a password over the phone to ANYONE, EVER.
• Don't reveal a password in an email message
• Don't reveal a password to the boss
• Don't talk about a password in front of others
• Don't hint at the format of a password (e.g., "my family name")
• Don't reveal a password on questionnaires or security forms
• Don't share a password with family members
• Don't reveal a password to co-workers while on vacation
• Don’t reveal a password in chat. 

If someone demands a password, refer them to this document or have him/her call the Network Administrator.

The "Remember Password" feature of applications (e.g., Eudora, Outlook, Entourage, and Outlook Web Access) should not be used.

Passwords should not be written down and stored them anywhere in your office. Passwords in a file on ANY computer system (including Palm Pilots or similar devices) should not be stored without encryption.

Change passwords at least once every six months. The recommended change interval is every four months.

If an account or password is suspected to have been compromised, report the incident to the Helpdesk and change all passwords.

University Information Technologies or its delegates may perform password cracking or guessing on a periodic or random basis. If a password is guessed or cracked during one of these scans, the user will be required to change it.

D. Use of Passwords and Pass phrases for Remote Access Users

Access to the William Woods University Networks via remote access is to be controlled using either a one-time password authentication or a public/private key system with a strong passphrase.

E. Pass phrases

Pass phrases are generally used for public/private key authentication. A public/private key system defines a mathematical relationship between the public key that is known by all, and the private key, that is known only to the user. Without the passphrase to "unlock" the private key, the user cannot gain access.

Pass phrases are not the same as passwords. A passphrase is a longer version of a password and is, therefore, more secure. A passphrase is typically composed of multiple words. Because of this, a passphrase is more secure against "dictionary attacks."

A good pass phrase is relatively long and contains a combination of upper and lowercase letters and numeric and punctuation characters. An example of a good passphrase:

"The*?#>*@TrafficOnThe101Was*&#!#ThisMorning"

All of the rules above that apply to passwords apply to passphrases.

Enforcement

Violation of this policy will be handled in accordance with William Woods University policies and procedures.