Your password is important!

Your password is important because it is used to protect access to your work, your email and any electronic resources (such as library resources) that you can access through the University. And, if you have access to any work done by other people (for example in shared files/folders) then your password will also protect their work.

Your computer account and the security of your password is your responsibility. Never tell anyone your password and please never write it down.

Choosing a strong password

The University has a strong password policy which affects what you can choose for your password - simple words like 'password' are not permitted, and there are other rules. Whilst these rules make it slightly harder to choose a password, they do make it harder for others to guess or otherwise compromise your password.

When choosing a new CFS password, please note that:

• It must not contain your username, or more than two consecutive characters from your full name (if your name is "John Smith" then your password cannot contain "joh" or "ith"; however it could contain "jo" or "th").
• It must be a minimum of eight characters.
• It must contain characters from three of the following four categories:

1. UK English uppercase (A – Z)
2. UK English lowercase (a – z)
3. Numbers (0 – 9)
4. Non alphabetic characters (for example !, $, #, %)

• It must not be a password you have used before - previous passwords are remembered and compared to your new password.

In addition, the strong password policy requires that you:

• Do not use personal information that someone else is likely to guess - for example family members' names, your phone number, etc.. 
• Do not use passwords that are easy to identify when you type them in, such as sequences or repeated characters like 1234, 2222, abcd, adjacent keyboard letters like qwerty, etc..

There are similar rules in place for passwords on other systems that we provide, although due to technical limitations they are not identical to the above.

Changing your password

If you change your password and you are in any of the following categories you may be LOCKED OUT from using a University PC or inconvenienced:

• A user of Sophos at home or on a laptop
• A user of IMAP to connect to email
• A user of a mobile device to connect to email
• A user of specially mapped Z: and X: drives
• An off-campus member of staff
• A user who authenticates against CFS for other reasons
• A user who runs scheduled Windows Tasks
• A user with local accounts on a PC, including Administrator accounts.

See FAQs for Passwords for additional information.

Changing your CFS password on-campus

If you are on-campus you can change your CFS password at any time from a staff or student PC. But we recommend that University staff only change their passwords on a staff office PC for their own protection and security.

Changing your CFS password off-campus

If you are off-campus, you can change your CFS password using Outlook Web Access (webmail).

Keeping your password safe

To protect the information in your computer account from unauthorised access:

• Do not share your username and password with anyone. Except in the case of a shared departmental account, you should never disclose the passwords for your computer accounts to anyone. If you receive a phone call or an email message requesting such information please report the incident to the IT Service Desk. Remember, no one from IT services will ever ask for your password.
• Do not write down your password
• Do not let anyone see you type your password
• Remember to log off. Do not leave a PC without first logging off. Leaving your account logged in, especially in a Student PC Area, is one way that your computer account can be compromised. Check that you're logged off before you leave the PC.
• Do not download programs from unknown sources on the internet Some of the free software available on the internet may contain viruses, and some can actually allow unauthorised users to gain access to your account without your knowledge.

If you forget your password

Students can use the Password Reset Facility to reset their password. Members of staff must contact the IT Service Desk.