How to generate a secure password?

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Having a strong password difficult to guess is essential to the security of your professional and personal accounts.

What's a secure password?


Currently, a "strong" password is:
 
  • made at least of one number, one lower case letter, one capital letter and one special character (among !@#$%&*_-+=(){}<>/;:,.|?);
  • at least 12 characters long (until 24 is even better!);
  • not a name nor a word that exists in the English dictionary or other languages, and 3 identical characters cannot follow each other;
  • can’t be lent or communicated by email or other ways (there are regular phishing attempts);
  • changed regularly and at the first suspicion of compromise;
  • is unique for each application.
To create a password that meets these conditions while being easy to remember, several methods can be used.


Initial letter method


Choose a sentence that means something to you (we will give the example with a proverb, but choose something more personal) and keep only the initial letter of each word.

For example: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
gives: abithiwtitb

And if you add a number, capital letters, and a special character it becomes: aBitHiw2itb.

Easy to remember, difficult to guess!

 The French CNIL (National Commission on Informatics and Liberty) offers on its website a password generator using this method (just remember that for now, special characters are not allowed in Copass, the UGA digital safe).


Word mix


Choose four words or more you can remember (for example with the same semantic field) and create a new one by mixing them. Caution! This new word must not exist.

For example: flower garden leaf tree
gives: flogaletre

And if you add a number, a capital letter, and a special character it becomes: 3Flogaletre!

Easy to remember, difficult to guess!


How to change your UGA password?


Go to "How to change my password?" webpage and follow the instructions.
Updated on  January 11, 2024