Secure passwords

User passwords are the sole defense against unauthorized intrusion into your account. A poor (easily guessed or determined) password could allow a determined "cracker" ( those who break into computer systems) to break into your account.

Things you should AVOID when choosing a new password:

• Your Social Security Number or other ID number. This is one of the worst passwords you can have.
• Using your username as your password. This is the first thing that anybody would ever try to guess.
• Using a password derived from your name, affiliations, or other personal information. These can be easily guessed.
• Using words found in dictionaries. This is where automated password crackers usually get many of their guesses from! Even obscure words can be unsuitable for proper security.
• Using simple keyboard patterns like '12345678', 'Oooooo', or 'qwerty'. Not only are these easy to guess, but they're easy to determine just by watching you type it in.
• Repeating a simple word as a password. Passwords like 'FredFred' are checked for by automated password crackers.
• Using common proper nouns such as 'ibm', or 'xerox'.
• Any variations of the above such as spelling backwards, appending a character or digit to the end or your username, just capitalizing a few characters of one of the above, or any other minor variations. Password cracking programs are very sophisticated at trying variations of words or simple patterns.

Things you can do to ensure a secure password selection:

• Use nonsense words which aren't found in a dictionary.
• Ensure your password is at least six characters long (maximum of 15 significant characters).
• Use uppercase characters (capitals) mixed in with lowercase. Putting capitals in random locations throughout the word is more effective than just capitalizing the first or last character.
• Use a combination of alphabetic and numeric characters.
• Include punctuation characters.

One good scheme for selecting passwords involves using the first character of each word (or other prominent characters) in a phrase. For example, the password "Iles-lPE" was derived from the phrase "I like eating spinach- like Pop-Eye."

Some good password maintenance habits:

• Change your password regularly. (Once every couple of months.)
• Never give your password to anybody. Nobody needs to know what your password is. Not even Cape.Com personnel.
• Change your password immediately if anybody finds out what it is.
• Don't write down your password where others can see it.

Password Restrictions:

• Passwords are limited to between 6 and 15 characters
• Accepted characters are (a-z A-Z 0-9 - _)

The information presented in this section is deemed accurate but is not guaranteed. It is provided as a free service to our subscribers and clients. Additionally, Cape.Com, Inc. exercises no editorial control over any links that are outside the www.cape.com domain and the content of these sites does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of our Company, its employees or clients.