Take the time to choose a good password. If someone can guess you password they can gain access to your account, potentially causing you severe inconvenience and embarassment.

Passwords that are too short, too simple, that are based on commonly used words, slogans, or phrases, or that use information about yourself, are too easily guessed.

When making up your password keep these rules in mind:

• Passwords must contain at least eight characters. Longer is better. (But note that for Unix account passwords only the first eight characters actually count; the rest are ignored.)

• Uppercase letters, lowercase letters, digits, and punctuation may be used in passwords. Passwords must contain a mixture of at least three of these elements.

• Avoid dates, social security numbers, phone numbers, names of family members, or common expressions ("govols").

• Try basing your password on a phrase or jingle. This can be easy to remember while producing a seemingly random string of characters.

Here are some examples of phrase-based passwords: