09/04/2020
Below is a sample template your company can utilize to establish sound password policies and procedures to ensure your company is protected from the inside.
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 result in the compromise of 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
These guidelines apply to employees, contractors, consultants, and other temporary 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. Directec recommends a minimum of 14 characters in your password. In addition, the use of passphrases (passwords made up of multiple words) is strongly encouraged. 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, Directec highly encourages the use of password management software that is authorized and provided by the organization. Whenever possible, also enable the use of multi-factor authentication.
