Why use a passphrase?

What is a passphrase?

A passphrase is simply a different way of thinking about a much longer password. Dictionary words and names are no longer restricted. In fact, one of the very few restrictions is the length - 15 characters. Your passphrase can be a favorite song lyric, quote from a book, magazine, or movie, or something your kids said last week. It's really that easy.

Better security

IU account passwords protect all sorts of valuable data — personal finances, university finances, HR data, student data, etc. Would you want the people with access to all your information using old, insecure passwords? Better security is provided by increasing the length of a password to a minimum of fifteen characters. ALL IU users should consider the risks and switch today.

Almost anything goes

The restrictions of numbers and/or symbols in certain places in your password are gone. Passphrases can be simple short sentences of five or six words with spaces, using natural language. Since you type emails and such every day, typing in natural language shouldn't be anything new.

A happy medium

Passphrases bring into balance the trade-off between hard to remember but much more secure passwords, and easy to remember but much less secure passwords. By extending the length, IU is able to reduce the complexity requirement, and offer passwords that can allow virtually any character, word, or symbol.

To read more in-depth about why passphrases are a more effective solution and about why they're more secure, see the Information Security Office article:

• Passwords are passe

To change your password or passphrase now, visit:

• https://passphrase.iu.edu/

For more information, see:

• Passwords and passphrases
• At IU, how do I change or synchronize my Network ID passphrase?
• What is passphrase vaulting?
• At IU, if I forget my passphrase, what should I do?
• If I give my passphrase to someone else who uses my account to send a harassing email message, will I be held responsible?