Chapman’s Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) announced in an email to the campus community last month that new password requirements will be implemented for students and faculty members. Starting June 15, students and faculty will need to reset their university passwords with the requirements assembled by the IS&T staff. 

The new policy requires passwords to be a minimum of 12 characters, though 14 characters are preferred. All new passwords must have at least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, one number and one punctuation character in them, according to Michelle Sypinero, the assistant vice president of Information Security. It is also advised that students and faculty not include the terms “Chapman” or “Panther” in their new passwords. Students and faculty will also be required to change their passwords at least once a year. 

“We have noticed a recent rise in the number of accounts that have been compromised,” Sypinero said. “In order to address this issue and keep our community safe, we propose implementing measures that will help to reduce the number of compromised accounts.” 

Since the fall semester, students and faculty have noticed an increase in job scam emails in their inboxes that have compromised the community’s safety online. This rise in scam emails resulted in IS&T releasing new protocols for creating email passwords. 

Chapman’s IS&T team encourages users to create very strong passwords that will protect them from cyber-attacks. 

The current password requirements consist of passwords being at least eight characters long, including one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, one number and one punctuation character. The policy also reminds students and faculty members not to include their name (first, middle or last) or their email account name in the password. 

IS&T’s goal is to improve the  two-factor/multi-factor authentication process and influence students, faculty and staff to build stronger and longer passwords to keep their accounts safe. 

Junior economics and political science double major Talar Kazanjian emphasizes that she receives at least one scam email per day in her student email inbox.

“I’m glad IS&T is implementing new password requirements because I always get scam work emails and job opportunities that I don’t know if they are real or not,” Kazanjian said. “I hope the new password requirements protect my account from scam emails.”

IS&T highly recommends that students and faculty members reset their password before the deadline of June 15 to avoid disruptions by going to password.chapman.edu.