Password Complexity Requirements and Standards

• Passwords expire 120 days after the account was established or 120 days after the password was last changed – whichever comes later.
• Passwords will be established using the following convention: ”NSUdemons” followed by the first 5 numbers of the SSN. For example John Smith with a SSN of 123-45-6789 would have his password established as ”NSUdemons12345”. Please note that the password is case sensitive. Faculty and staff that require their passwords to be reset should contact Information Systems at 318-357-5594. Passwords will be reset using the convention shown above.
• A password will be assigned with every username. This password must be changed the first time a user logs on. The exception is for adjunct professors. Since many adjuncts are off campus and rely on external Internet communications, it is not technically feasible for the system to require users to change their password on first use. Therefore, adjunct accounts are not configured with this requirement. However, adjuncts are required from a policy standpoint to change their passwords after gaining system access the first time.
• Passwords must be a minimum of eight (8) characters. Passwords greater than 15 characters should not be used. Passwords greater than 15 characters will result in access to the Alpha (SCT) being denied.
  • Imbedded blanks or spaces are not allowed in passwords.
  • Passwords must contain at least 3 of the 4 categories:
  • English uppercase characters (A-Z)
  •  English lowercase characters (a-z)
  • Base 10 digits (0-9)
  • Non-alphanumeric (special) characters (%, &, !, etc.).

Password Expiration Notification
On-campus users including Shreveport, Alexandria, and Leesville will receive notification during the PC logon process that their password is going to expire 14 days before expiration. All users (on and off campus) will receive an e-mail notification that their passwords will expire in 15, 7, and 3 days unless the password is changed sooner. The e-mail notification will contain a link to these instructions for changing a password for on or off-campus users.