Creating a strong passphrase (password) is the very best thing each employee can do to keep our systems and networks secure. But what makes a password as strong as steel AND EASY TO MEMORIZE?

• Use Passphrases! – a simple sentence that you can easily remember, that is unique to you!
• Add some moderate complexity (use at least three of the following in your Passphrase (Upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, special characters ~!@$%^&*_-+=|\(){}[]:;"<>,.? 
• Examples: “mydogMaxlovesme2“ or “SummerfunonM@scoma”

Remember!   Passphrases should be unique for each account.   That is, do not use the same passphrase or slightly varied passphrases for different accounts.

Remember! NEVER share your passphrase!  Technical support teams NEVER need to know your passphrase! ONLY YOU should know your passphrase!

The currently enforced D-H passphrase requirements are:

1. Passphrases (passwords) must be at least 15 characters in length.
2. Passphrases (passwords) must contain at least three of the four complexity requirements (upper case, lower case, numbers, and special characters).
3. Passphrases (passwords) may NOT contain more than four characters in sequence (e.g. "12345" or "abcde").
4. Passphrases (passwords) may not contain any part of the account name (e.g., cannot contain words Samuel or Adams if the users account name is Samuel.Adams).

   Additional Best Practices:

5. Avoid using Passphrase (passwords) used for other accounts
6. Avoid repeating words found in the dictionary (e.g. "passwordpassword").

Keep it secure!

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