Physical Plant Kiosk - Making Good PasswordsYour Title Here
Your OSU account passwords are secret. Strong passwords protect your personal information better than poor ones. This tutorial can help you make strong passwords.
Here are the bare rules for making O-key passwords:
- Are between 8 and 32 letters and numbers long
- Cannot include words you find in the Dictionary
- Can include special characters like ~, !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, ), _, +, =, -
- Must include at least 1 Number (0, 1, 2, ...9)
- Must include at least 1 CAPITAL letter (A, B, C, ...Z)
- Must include at least 1 small letter (a, b, c, ...z)
- Cannot include Spaces
- Cannot be one of your Last 4 O-Key passwords
Example Password - Do NOT Use This Password!
Follow these steps to come up with your own password:1. Take two dictionary words (black and bean)
2. Split the first word in the middle with a number (bla8ck)
3. Split the second word in the middle with a number (be4an)
4. Stick them together (bla8ckbe4an)
5. Capitalize one letter (Bla8ckbe4an)
6. Done!(Bla8ckbe4an)
Password Tips
- Don't use any single word from the dictionary (any language)
- Don't use slang words (they are in dictionaries too!)
- Don't use words from foreign languages (even Klingon!)
- Don't use simple keyboard pattern passwords (i.e. "aa...a" or "qwerty")
- Don't use any person name or user name
- Don't use any place name (city, state, country, etc.)
- Don't use anything near your computer.
- NEVER use numbers like your driver's license or social security number.
- Don't reuse any password you have used in the past.
- NEVER store your password on a floppy disk
- NEVER give your password to anybody (CIS doesn't need it!)
- Don't use any password example from this page or any other!
- Do use acronyms, especially ones you make up.
- Do use MiXeD cAsE, which is harder to guess.
Bad Password Examples
- 12345 Easily cracked
- aaaaa Too simple
- 999-99-9999 Personal info exposes you to risk
- 01-01-1901 Personal info exposes you to risk
- dog Can be cracked by "dictionary attack"
Good Password Examples
- BobDuntKnoNoBetr Misspelled words are hard to crack
- D9nc3rsS40v3L1n6 Replacement: "dancers shoveling."
- Iwadasn1S "It was a dark and stormy night in Stillwater"
- 3laa2s4P "Three-letter acronyms are too short for passwords!"
O-Key Password Twister Utility
Use this form to help you make a valid O-Key password. Type in any
word or words and click "Twist It!" It will substitute letters
with numbers where it can. It also capitalizes the first letter in the word.
And if your password cannot be Twisted, it'll tell you why.
