MU Password Policy
Password minimum requirements:
At least fifteen (15) characters in length
May not contain significant portions of your first name, last name, or the word Millersville.
May be changed only once within a 24-hour period
Must be changed at least once every 365 days
Not equal to any of your previous ten (10) passwords
Contain at least one character from each of the following categories:
- English uppercase characters (A through Z)
- English lowercase characters (a through z)
- Numeric characters (0 through 9)
- Symbols/non-alphabetic, non-numeric characters (!, #, %, space character, etc.)
Managing your password
You can change or reset your password by visiting:
https://myaccount.millersville.edu
In addition to the policy requirements, best practices suggest secure passwords adhere to three principles:
- Passwords must never be written down.
- Passwords must not be predictable.
- Passwords must be unforgettable.
Password Tips
Don't confuse strong with difficult, or simple with insecure. A strong password can be simple to remember if you use a technique for creating it. Here are examples of techniques to create secure passwords. They are examples only, if you use one of them add your own twist to make it uniquely yours.
Passphrase or Short Sentence
A suggestion for easily creating a strong password is to think in terms of a passphrase or short sentence using punctuation. The examples below are easy to remember but are strong as well.
Please do not use any of these password examples. Treat these examples as guidelines only.
Forget7-layer cake!
1 heart my pet.
NOt having cake. #sadness
Replace letters with numbers or symbols.
Let's say you were born in Lancaster, replacing the letter 'a' with '@' and the letter 'e' with '3' would result in the secure password L@nc@st3r. A word as common as Lancaster may break the predictable principle, so we may want to change it a little. Maybe add a couple of characters to it. Maybe an office number. You may end up with something like Lanc@st3r127.
Replace letters in a common word you like with letters on the keys directly above them on the keyboard.
Using this technique changes Lancaster to Oqhdqw534. Again, this technique may be predictable so something should be added to make it just a little more unpredictable, maybe a favorite character, like: Oqhdqw534$
Pick a favorite saying and apply your own formula.
For example, on March 23, 1775 Patrick Henry said "Give me liberty or give me death." This quote could become Gml@gmd75, 17Gmlogmd75, or 03GMLoGMD23.