Greetings Students
Please read this message in its entirety to ensure you do not miss critical information. Hudson Valley Community College currently is engaged in an overhaul of our identity management (username and password management). This is the first of several communications you will receive from me on this topic.
What is happening
On Wednesday, March 29, your HVCC password will expire. We ask that you change your password prior to this date to ensure that you do not become locked out of your account. This change is being made to ensure that all passwords are changed routinely in accordance with information security best practices and to ensure the safety and security of our users and systems.
What do I need to do?
All users need to change their password prior to March 29. You can use the password reset utility located on our website. To find this:
- Navigate to www.hvcc.edu
- Click on “Current Students” at the top of the page.
- On the top right hand side of this page, you should see a link labeled “change your password”
- Enter your user name and current password in the boxes provided
- Type a new password and retype it in the confirmation box
- Press submit
While we could link directly to the password change utility, we have purposefully excluded links from this communication to lend credibility and so that you can feel safe that you are only entering your credentials on trusted HVCC websites.
Password complexity rules:
- Must be eight (8) to fourteen (14) characters in length
- Must contain at least one (1) of each of the following:
- Lowercase letter
- Uppercase (Capital) letter
- Special character: ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + – = { } [ ] | : ; < > ? , . /
- Digit: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
- Must not contain your own first name, last name, or username
What will happen if I forget to change my password by March 29?
- On March 29, anyone who has not yet changed their password will be locked out of all campus systems until the password is changed.
- On-campus students will be prompted to enter a new password before they can finish logging into the computer system.
- Web and off-campus students will need to complete the password change procedures detailed above before they will be able to log into campus systems.
This looks like a ‘phishing’ message, what gives?
We recognize that the college is constantly warning you about phishing scams attempting to steal your passwords, and we always tell you to disregard this type of communication. To assure you of the legitimacy of this message, we are communicating this in a number of official college communication channels. We also will post notifications with instructions on login pages that we all use daily.
Am I going to have to do this again in the future?
Yes, you must change your passwords again in about six months, but by this time we will have simplified the process. We currently are engaged in an identity management initiative which seeks to streamline how the college creates and manages user accounts. Part of this initiative will be improvements in password resets, and automated account expiration. In the future, rather than sending an email, notifications of password expiration will be done automatically when you log in.
Thank you for your cooperation with this important security initiative. If you have any questions, please contact the Computer Learning Center in the lower level of MRV or by calling (518) 629-7891.
Regards,
Jonathan Brennan
Chief Information Officer
Hudson Valley Community College
Published: Fri, 03 Mar 2017 13:32:11 +0000 by j.brennan