NEVER SEND CONFIDENTIAL/SECURITY/SENSITIVE INFORMATION VIA EMAIL OR ELECTRONIC TEXT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. BIC SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS WILL NEVER EVER REQUEST/SOLLICIT PASSWORDS AND/OR OTHER USERS SENSITIVE CREDENTIALS VIA EMAIL. IF YOU RECEIVE SUCH A REQUEST YOU ARE BEING TAKEN FOR A RIDE BY AN IMPOSTER!`
The command to change your password is yppasswd username where username is your BIC username. If you are logged in as yourself, then simply type yppasswd .
You can do this on any system that is under the BIC management.
Note that it might take up to a few minutes for the new information to be propagated to all BIC systems. This information is cached on a local system and only when the cache time-to-live (TTL) expires will the client ask the server to update its values of the user’s login credentials.
How to Pick a Good Password
Excerps from a manpage from a well known Linux distro:
Compromises in password security normally result from careless password selection or handling. For this reason, you should not select a password which appears in a dictionary or which must be written down. The password should also not be a proper name, your license number, birth date, or street address. Any of these may be used as guesses to violate system security. Moreover using simple words with digits prepended or appended to them (like 1212eve' or adam1234’) doesn’t make them harder to be cracked.
Your password must be easily remembered so that you will not be forced to write it on a piece of paper. This can be accomplished by appending two small words together and separating each with a special character or digit. For example, sharp%sword . Use the password generator command easypass -s to generate examples of good passwords. This command is available on every BIC system. This command can generate very hard to crack passwd by using the option -l . Give it a try!
Your password must be easily remembered so that you will not be forced to write it on a piece of paper.
There are many ways to construct passwords that are hard to crack and easy to remember. Here are just a few:
- The merger method:
Take 2 or more words and merge them with non-alphanumeric keys:
stove)limbo great*sky@river
The command easypass -s implementing this scheme is available on the BIC systems.
- The creative spelling method:
Example: f0t0G3n!c
- The first character method:
Take an easily remembered phrase from literature and select the first or last letter from each word. An example of this is:
El amor en los tiempos del colera
which produces:
e4eltdc
You may be reasonably sure few crackers will have included this in their dictionaries. You should, however, select your own methods for constructing passwords and not rely exclusively on the methods given here.
DONT :
- Spell a word the same way the dictionary does.
- Use proper names, like those of family members, friends, pets or (in)famous people.
- Reuse old passwords or simply add a extra character to them.
- Share passwords with anyone, not even to people posing as system administrators or other authorities!
- Provide information on phone calls and emails asking for your login information (username and password).
- Use the same password for multiple accounts even if it is convenient.