As software for cracking passwords becomes more sophisticated, strong passwords become more essential. Volgistics allows you to create password guidelines designed to safeguard your account while still offering the flexibility to simplify passwords to the needs of your users.
We’ve recently made changes to the password settings to allow more options. Password strength rules can be set to include case sensitivity, password lengths, expirations dates, and character combinations such as letters, numbers and symbols. There will not be any changes to existing accounts so it is very important for you to take the time to review and update your settings if necessary.
We recommend the strongest password guidelines for System Operators. You configure these guidelines from the System Operator Ground Rules page. The following video shows how to do this:
If you choose to update your account’s password strength rules, you can require operators to comply with the new settings by checking the box next to “Operator must change their password when they login next” on the setup page for that System Operator.
If you’re making this change for your entire organization, you may wish to send out a memo first to alert your operators about the change. You could use this memo to tell operators the rules their new password must follow. You may also want to include a link to the following article with tips on creating and remembering strong passwords: http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/generalsecurity/a/aa112103b.htm
If your organization uses the VicNet module (volunteer portal), you can also change the password strength rules for volunteers and coordinators. The following video shows how to do this:
While there is not an option to require a volunteer or coordinator to change their password the next time they log-in, you can select the option to have all VicNet passwords expire in the next 30 days. This will require users to update their passwords using the new rules you select before the time period ends. If you do this, you will also want to make sure volunteers have the option to access the “Account” tab through VicNet so they can change their passwords.
As always, please feel free to submit a help inquiry from the “Help E-mail” tab of your Volgistics Mailbox if you have any questions.