Cyber-Safety Basics: Protect Passwords

Why should you protect passphrases/passwords? Because they can be used to:

Gain access to your computer, online bank and credit accounts, health records, or grades and financial aid information on MyUCDavis.
Open new accounts under your name or charge purchases to your bank accounts or credit cards without your knowledge.
Access programs, files and applications that only you and/or a selected group of others should have access to.
Change passphrases/passwords and lock you out of your own accounts.

To protect your passphrases/passwords:

Create strong passphrases that are 12 or more characters long and use a combination of character types (e.g., upper and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation).
Don’t write down passphrases/passwords on a Post-it under your keyboard, on your monitor or in a drawer near your computer! Never share your passphrases/passwords with anyone via email or telephone.
Don’t fall for email scams that threaten to close your account if you don’t confirm your passphrases/passwords, even if the email appears to be from UC Davis. These are PHISHING SCAMS. UC Davis will NEVER ask you to share your passphrase. For more about phishing, see http://security.ucdavis.edu/antiphishing.cfm. If you think you’ve responded to a phishing scam, contact the IT Express Computing Services Help Desk at 530-754-4357.

To manage and/or change your campus passwords, go to:

Change/Test your Kerberos Password
Banner
Campus Computing Accounts (Kerberos passwords)
DaFIS and DaFIS Decision Support
DESII
PPS
For help with forgotten passwords, email pps-adminasst@ucdavis.edu or call Susan Morgan at (530) 754-7654.
PPS Decision Support