Pace University IT security team using a laptop
Information Technology Services

Good Password Practices

Passwords (passphrases) are an important aspect of information security. Hackers and identity thieves are constantly looking for ways to steal people’s usernames, passwords, and other personal information, which they can then use for their own illegal purposes or financial gain. Simple passwords may cause a security breach, resulting in the theft of your user accounts. Once compromised, your account could be used to launch attacks on other Pace University systems, companies, or institutions around the world. If someone else could figure out your password, they could assume your electronic identity. Hackers use software programs that attempt to crack users’ passwords and they are pretty effective at guessing passwords that are considered weak. Thus, it is very important to create a strong password that you can remember easily, but that is very difficult for others to guess.

Student/Faculty/Staff Password Rules

  • must not contain more than 3 consecutive characters of your first name, last name, or username
  • must be 12 or more characters long.
  • must contain at least one character from three of these four categories:
    • UPPERcase characters (A, B, C, ...)
    • lowercase character (a, b, c, ...)
    • numbers (1, 2, 3, ...)
    • special characters (! * + - / : ? _ # $)
    (i.e. must have at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, and one number)
  • must not be one that you have recently used
    (you cannot use one of your last 4 passwords)
  • cannot be changed more than once every 24 hours

Tips to Create Passwords/Passphrases: Swap characters or numbers for letters and/or create an acronym from an easy-to-remember phrase:

Example 1 – Swap characters: Phrase: “Singing in the rain”, Password: S!ng!ng1nTh3Ra!n

Example 2 – Create acronym: Phrase: “My favorite color is blue and red”, Password: Mfcib!u3&R3d

Your Pace password gives you access to almost every I.T. resource at Pace, including very important personal information through the Pace Portal, so it is very important that you keep it safe.

For more details on how to create a strong password, visit the Password Complexity Guidelines page.