Assignment: Password Parameters

NOW F OR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT:Assignment: Password Parameters

Review the specific system guidelines for users—most will have information on password parameters and allowable characters.

· Use a combination of letters, numbers, special characters (!, $, %, &, *) and upper- and lowercase.

· Longer passwords are harder to crack. Consider at least 8 characters if the system allows.

· Choose a password that is based on a phrase: Use portions or abbreviations of the words in the phrase, or use substitutions (e.g., $ for S, 4 for “for”) to create the password. Example phrase: “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was released in 1967; example password: LUit$wdia67.

· Think carefully about the password and create something that is easy for you to remember.

· Change your password frequently, and do so immediately if you believe your system or email has been hacked.

· Consider using a password manager program to help you create strong passwords and store them securely.Key terms related to criminal attacks are brute force attack (software used to guess network passwords) and zero day attack (searching for and exploiting software vulnerabilities). Of the intentional data breaches (as opposed to unintentional), “45 percent of healthcare organizations say the root cause of the data breach was a criminal attack and 12 percent say it was due to a malicious insider” (Ponemon Institute, para. 4). That leaves nearly 43% of data breaches in the unintentional category. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2015 survey reported the negligent insider as the most common source of a security breach. Examples of unintentional/negligent breaches include lost or stolen devices, or walking away from a workstation without logging off. If you use a device in your work and it is lost or stolen, or you violate policy by walking away from a workstation without logging off, this may be considered negligence and you may be subject to discipline or even lose your job