Do not use:

• Names:
  • of yourself, including nicknames;
  • of your spouse or significant other, of your parents, children, siblings, pets, or other family members;
  • of fictional characters, especially ones from fantasy or sci-fi stories like the Lord of the Rings or Star Trek;
  • of any place or proper noun;
  • of computers or computer systems;
  • any combination of any of the above.
• Numbers, including:
  • your phone number;
  • your social security number;
  • anyone's birthday;
  • your driver's licence number or licence plate;
  • your room number or address;
  • any common number like 3.1415926 or 1.618034;
  • any series such as 1248163264;
  • any combination of any of the above.
• Any username in any form, including:
  • capitalized (Joeuser);
  • doubled (joeuserJoeuser);
  • reversed (resueoJ);
  • reflected (joeuserResueoj);
  • with numbers or symbols appended (Joeuser!).
• Any word in any dictionary in any language in any form.
• Any word you think isn't in a dictionary, including:
  • any slang word or obscenity;
  • any technical term or jargon (BartleMUD, microfortnight, Oobleck).
• Any common phrase:
  • ``Go ahead, make my day.''
  • ``Brother, can you spare a dime?''
  • ``1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish.''
• Simple patterns, including:
  • passwords of all the same letter;
  • simple keyboard patterns (qwerty, asdfjkl);
  • anything that someone might easily recognize if they see you typing it.
• Any information about you that is easily obtainable:
  • favorite color;
  • favorite rock group.
• Any object that is in your field of vision at your workstation.
• Any password that you have used in the past.

There are programs (and they are easy to write) which will crack passwords that are based on the above.

Do:

• Change your password every three to six months. Changing once every term should be considered an absolute minimum frequency.
• Use both upper and lower case letters.
• Use numbers and special symbols (!@#$) with letters.
• Create simple mnemonics (memory aids) or compounds that are easily remembered, yet hard to decipher:
  • ``3laR2s2uaPA$$WDS!'' for ``Three-letter acronyms are too short to use as passwords!''
  • ``IwadaSn,atCwt2bmP,btc't.'' for ``It was a dark and stormy night, and the crackers were trying to break my password, but they couldn't.''
  • ``HmPwaCciaCccP?'' for ``How many passwords would a cracker crack if a cracker could crack passwords?''
• Use two or more words together (Yet_Another_Example).
• Use misspelled words (WhutdooUmeenIkan'tSpel?).
• Use a minimum of eight characters. You may use up to 255 characters on Athena, and generally the longer the password, the more secure it is.

Never!

``Why go through all the trouble?''

``What if I forget my password?''