Password Tips

We strongly encourage you to use different passwords for all of your sensitive information accounts.  For example, use a unique password for your email and online banking accounts.  Using different and unique passwords for each account helps to minimize the impact in the event that someone gains access to one of your accounts.

Use a variety of numbers, symbols, upper and lower case letters in your password. Using a mixture of at least 12 characters to craft your password creates an extremely large number of potential combinations and makes your password much harder to guess.

While creating your password with a mixture of numbers, symbols, upper and lower case letters; don't use personal information.  Pick a random sentence and use the first letter of each word, along with punctuation, as the password.  For example, "Fred And Wilma Like To Have Ham And Eggs For Dinner" would become "F&Wl2hh&e4d.".  Please don't use the example as your password.  Avoid simple passwords like "password1234" or "abcd1234"; thieves know people use those passwords and try them first.  It makes their job easier to gain access to your accounts, by using common passwords.

If the website allows you to create your own security questions, try to create a question/answer that can't be answered by searching your social media or blogging websites.  If the website provides a list of questions for you to choose from, use a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols in your answer.  This will help protect your answer because the intruder won't know the special combo of characters you used to answer the question.

Another alternative to a conventional password is to use a sentence or phase as a password.  This is a simple way to create a long password that is easy to remember.  The use of a sentence or phrase makes it more difficult for an attacker to steal your login information so they can gain access to your BGSU account.  In addition to your BGSU account, the BGSU Information Security Office recommends using this technique on your other personal accounts.

The number one thing not to do is write down your password and store it near your computer or in a location that is not locked.  Whether it be a sticky note or a piece of paper taped to the bottom of your keyboard, avoid these common mistakes and secure your passwords.  If you store your passwords in a file on your laptop/computer, encryption software should be used to encrypt the file.  Password managers are also a good option to protect passwords (see more under Other Security Suggestions below).  The more difficult you make it to get your passwords, the higher the odds that intruders will move on to an easier target.