Passwords are the first line of defence to prevent unauthorised access to electronic resources (including PC, systems, network, files, etc.) without permission from the owner; which is an offence under the UK Computer Misuse Act 1990.
Your LSE password is required to at least meet the following:
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At least 8 characters long
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Contain at least one upper case letter and at least one lower case letter
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Contain at least one number or punctuation character
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Avoid international (non ASCII) characters
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Not be a dictionary word
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Be less than 12 months old
Please note: You are required to change your LSE password at least once per year (unless you have told us of requirements for this to happen more regularly, in which case we will implement this for you).
See here for guidance on how to change your password and for more details on keeping your password strong and secure, see below:
While complex passwords can be difficult to remember, a good alternative is to create a passphrase:
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Use initial letters of an easily remembered phrase: ‘The Red Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog!’ becomes ‘TRFJotLD!’;
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Or, you can use a list of names (familiar to you) to make a long passphrase consisting of more than 20 characters.
2 factor authentication (2FA), or 2 steps verification, is practice of having an additional layer of technical controls before you can access the service or account, or asking you to reconfirm access if it has been from a new or unfamiliar device.
Whilst not used by LSE services, many email or cloud storage services now provide the option of 2 steps verifications – make sure to use them.
Although an understandable habit, using the same passwords across multiple online services creates better chances for cybercriminals to steal your information.
It’s fairly easy these days to have dozens of online accounts – if your credentials for one of these are exposed, it is possible all of your data will be at risk.
A password management tool generates all of the complex passwords for you, with the only one you need to remember being the master password.
Acting as the encryption key to lock the others, your master password should be at least 12 characters, strong and complex.
See here for a list of generally recognised password management tools.