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Password Management Best Practices

A password is a secret, typically a series of letters, numbers and other symbols thatan employee uses to verify their identity when accessing electronic information. Strongpassword management practices reduce risk to Government information.

Users are strongly encouraged to follow these best practices to ensure adequateprotection and security of passwords.

OCIO | E-mail: IM@gov.nl.ca | Website: http://www.ocio.go

orYourInformation

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Best Practice

T reat passwords as condential and protect them from unauthorized access, use or

disclosure

E nter passwords with caution to prevent viewing by others nearby

D o not share or otherwise disclose passwords

D o not send passwords in an email

W hen it is necesssary to communicate passwords, do so:

In person (i.e. face to face)

Vi a telephone

V ia voicemail, if the mailbox is dedicated to the authorized recipient ( i.e. notgroup voicemail) and the number is verified as belonging to that

authorized user

V ia secure mail such as tamper-proof envelopes and certied mail, etc

D o not share or write down passwords in any form such as taping to desk walls or

terminals, storing in list nders and desk drawers, etc.

C hange temporary passwords immediately upon rst time use of that password.

D o not save passwords in unsecured computer les like Microsoft Word or Excel,

especially on laptops, notebooks or handheld computers, since these devices are

easy targets for theft.

I mmediately report known or suspected compromises of passwords to an immedia

supervisor, manager, or the OCIO Service Desk at (729-4357)

or servicedesk@gov.nl.ca.

mailto://IM@gov.nl.camailto://IM@gov.nl.ca

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Password Management Best Practices

OCIO | E-mail: IM@gov.nl.ca | Website: http://www.ocio.go

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ore Information

Please contact OCIOs IP Advisory Services at IM@gov.nl.ca

Password C onstruction

P asswords should contain at least 8 characters

Pa sswords should contain mixes of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation

A lphabets A...Z, a...z

D igits 0 to 9

Spe cial characters (e.g. !; ; $; ); (; %; &; *; #; @; ?; {; }; [; ]; =; +; >;