Passwords | Unix | University of Waterloo

As mentioned before, to change your password, simply visit this site. This site will prompt you for your user name, your old password and prompt you twice to enter your new password.

If you have forgotten your password, bring your Watcard to Bernie Roehl who is in E2 2358.

Recall that you are responsible for all activities which occur on your account, and therefore, it is necessary that it is secured with a reasonable password. The default password is not secure. Some rules for secure passwords are:

Include at least one lower-case letter, one upper-case letter, one number, and one symbol, and
Manipulate two words which are related to you, but which are not related to each other.

Do not:

Repeat characters,
Use your name, your birthday, your phone number, any of your ID numbers, etc.
Any of the above associated with your friends or relatives,
Sequences of characters on the keyboard, e.g., werty.

For example, perhaps the best time in your life was when you were young riding on a pony. Also, your favourite class in history was about Neil Armstrong. One possible password combining these two may be poNY$5troNG. Come with a general strategy and use it for all your passwords, but make sure the passwords are still unique.

You should use the same password for both your Unix and your Nexus accounts. This simplifies some of the hand-shaking between the two systems, however, you should not use this password for any other site or account (for security reasons).