Security and confidentiality: your NetID is personal

Your NetID is used to grant you access to an ever-increasing range of resources, including potentially confidential data. It is a way of identifying that you are authorized to access the AUP network, and is thus an essential part of the University's overall network security infrastructure. For these reasons, your NetID is strictly personal and should not be shared with anyone. All members of the AUP community should have (and use) their own NetID to log on to computers, AUP e-mail, the MyAUP portal, and so on. Please do not share your password with anyone or log on to a computer for them using your account. Faculty and staff who need to give student assistants access to restricted resources (such as departmental file storage spaces or e-mail accounts) should contact the HelpDesk.

Passwords

Good password management is every user's responsibility in a networked environment. If an unauthorized user guesses, steals or discovers your password, he or she can assume your identity, access potentially confidential information, and even compromise other users' accounts. For this reason, please adhere to the following general guidelines:

• Don't share your password with anyone (including ITS staff)
• Avoid writing down your password (especially on a Post-It note stuck to your computer's monitor!)
• Change your password regularly (in any case, you will be required to change it every six months)
• Choose a password that is difficult to guess:
  • Make it long (at least six characters)
  • Mix uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation marks
  • Don't use dictionary words
  • Don't use personal information that's easy to guess or discover (e.g. your name, your spouse's name, your date of birth)

For further information about selecting strong passwords, see this US-CERT Cyber Security Tip. If you'd like to test the strength (or weakness!) your password is, try Microsoft's Password Checker.

Acceptable use of your NetID

You must not use your NetID — and by extension, any AUP computer and network resources — for illegal or unethical purposes. Unacceptable use includes (but is not limited to):

• Attempting to gain unauthorized access to local or remote network resources or computer systems
• Cyberstalking or harassment
• Fraudulently concealing, forging or otherwise falsifying your identity
• Publishing or otherwise communicating fraudulent, racist, or libelous information
• Distributing Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, chain letters or other forms of "spam"