Purpose: This document describes the requirements for a complex password within the security system.
Password Complexity
The requirements for a complex password follow closely to the requirements defined by Microsoft® for complex password within a Windows® 2003 system.
The exact specifications for a complex password are:
- The password must be at least six characters long.
- The password must contain characters from at least three of the following five categories:
- English uppercase characters (A – Z)
- English lowercase characters (a – z)
- Base 10 digits (0 – 9)
- Non-alphanumeric or symbols (for example: !,$,#, or %)
- Unicode characters
- The password cannot contain three or more consecutive characters from a word in the user's account name. For example, if the account name is "John L. Doe", a password would not meet the minimum complexity requirements if any of the following combinations was contained within the password: "joh", "ohn", "doe".