Your Villanova employee email address should be used for university business only. When creating accounts for non-university business, you must use your personal address.
Passwords are critical gatekeepers to our digital identities, allowing us to access online shopping, dating, banking, social media, private work, and life communications.
Creating strong passwords is an easy way to protect your valuable information both at work and at home. Luckily, everyone can learn how to make and manage stronger passwords!
Reference the tips below to start generating long, unique, and memorable passwords for each of your accounts and devices.
How to Create a Strong Password
- Use a minimum of 15 characters: An 8-character password can be guessed in less than a day! Creating a longer password makes it significantly more difficult to break into your account.
- Include capital letters, lower-case letters, numbers and/or symbols: Using a mix of at least three (3) different types of characters increases the number of possible combinations, making your password harder to figure out.
- Avoid common words or sequences: Don't include your name, username or common combinations of words of numbers (e.g., Nova1234). A single word or short phrase, especially an obvious one, makes a weak password that is easily guessed.
- Make it memorable: You might find it easier to use a passphrase, or a sentence-like string of words. Consider using techniques like rhymes, acronyms or other personal associations to create your password, making it more memorable for you and less vulnerable to outside threats.
Here is an example of a password that incorporates all five tips above: 2Paths-Forest-Fall
If you're having difficulty creating something on your own, take advantage of Bitwarden's free password/passphrase generator.
Guarding Your Passwords
Congratulations, you've created a strong password! Now, how do you keep your strong passwords secure?
Password managers are a great tool to securely store and manage your passwords in a single app. Villanova uses Bitwarden as its enterprise password manager, which also offers a free version for personal use.
In addition to installing a password manager, follow these tips to protect your accounts.
- Don't write them down: Many make the mistake of writing passwords on post-it-notes and leaving them in plain sight. Even if you hide your password, someone could still find it.
- Don't share passwords: You can't be sure someone else will keep your credentials safe. At work, you could be held responsible for anything that happens when someone is logged in as you.
- Don't reuse passwords: Create a unique, strong password for each of your accounts and devices. That way, if one account password is compromised, the others remain secure.
What is the University Password Standard?
To learn more about our password standards, visit Villanova University Password Standards.