Guidelines for Selecting Passwords

Never use passwords that have anything to do with your personal life, such as a spouse or child's name.

Never use an English word or proper name.

Never use an English word with a number at the end.

MPE/iX will not let you start a password with a number.

Never use your birthday, your street address, or any other number that has anything to do with yourself.

Never use any word spelled backwards.

Never share passwords. When two (or more) people use the same account, the system loses its ability to hold users responsible for their actions.

Never write Passwords down. Some of the most (in)famous penetrations have occurred because a user wrote a password on a terminal.

Never re-use a password. This increases the probability that someone can guess the password.

Never type a password while someone is watching. It is easy to obtain a password by observing someone type it.

Always pick a password that has numbers and/or special characters interspersed, or use the password generator.

Always use different passwords on different machines, but never make them the name of the machine, nor the name of the machine with a single number at the front or at the back.