Password Construction Guidelines

1. Overview

Passwords are a critical component of information security. Passwords serve to protect user accounts; however, a poorly constructed password may compromise individual systems, data, or network. This guideline provides best practices for creating secure passwords.

2. Purpose

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide best practices for the creation of strong passwords.

3. Scope

This guideline applies to employees, contractors, consultants, temporary and other workers, including all personnel affiliated with third parties. This guideline applies to all passwords including but not limited to user-level accounts, system-level accounts, web accounts, email accounts, screen saver protection, voicemail, and local router logins.

4. Statement of Guidelines

Strong passwords are long; the more characters you have, the stronger the password. We recommend a minimum of 14 characters in your password.  Also, we highly encourage the use of passphrases, passwords made up of multiple words.  Examples include “It’s time for vacation” or “block-curious-sunny-leaves.”  Passphrases are both easy to remember and type yet meet the strength requirements.  Poor or weak passwords have the following characteristics:

• Contain eight characters or less.
• Contain personal information such as birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, or names of family members, pets, friends, and fantasy characters.
• Contain number patterns such as aaabbb, qwerty, zyxwvuts, or 123321.
• Are some version of “Welcome123” “Password123” “Changeme123”

In addition, every work account should have a different, unique password. To enable users to maintain multiple passwords, we highly encourage using ‘password manager’ software authorized and provided by the organization.  Whenever possible, also enable the use of multi-factor authentication.

5. Policy Compliance

5.1  Compliance Measurement

The Infosec team will verify compliance with this policy through various methods, including but not limited to periodic walk-thrus, video monitoring, business tool reports, internal and external audits, and feedback to the policy owner.

5.2  Exceptions

The Infosec team must approve any exception to the policy in advance.

5.3  Non-Compliance

An employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment. 

Revised: March 14th, 2018

Table of Content

1. Acceptable Encryption Policy
2. Acceptable Use Policy
3. Clean Desc Policy
4. Data Breach Response Policy
5. Disaster Recovery Plan Policy
6. Digital Signature Acceptance Policy
7. Email Policy
8. Ethics Policy
9. Pandemic Response Planning Policy
10. Password Construction Guidelines
11. Password Protection Policy
12. Security Response Plan Policy
13. End User Encryption Key Protection Policy
14. Acquisition Assessment Policy
15. Bluetooth Baseline Requirements Policy
16. Remote Access Policy
17. Remote Access Tools Policy
18. Router and Switch Security Policy
19. Wireless Communication Policy
20. Wireless Communication Standard
21. Database Credentials Policy
22. Technology Equipment Disposal Policy
23. Information Logging Standard
24. Lab Security Policy
25. Server Security Policy 
26. Software Installation Policy
27. Workstation Security (For HIPAA) Policy
28. Web Application Security Policy
29.  Analog/ISDN Line Security Policy
30. Anti-Virus Guidelines
31. Server Audit Policy
32. Automatically Forwarded Email Policy
33. Communications Equipment Policy
34. Dial In Access Policy
35. Extranet Policy
36. Internet DMZ Equipment Policy
37. Internet Usage Policy
38. Mobile Device Encryption Policy
39. Personal Communication Devices and Voicemail Policy
40. Removable Media Policy
41. Risk Assessment Policy
42. Server Malware Protection Policy
43. Social Engineering Awareness Policy
44. DMZ Lab Security Policy
45. Email Retention Policy
46. Employee Internet Use Monitoring and Filtering Policy
47. Lab Anti Virus Policy
48. Mobile Employee Endpoint Responsibility Policy
49. Remote Access Mobile Computing Storage
50. Virtual Private Network Policy