The first rule of passwords is to NEVER give yours out. Nobody should ever need to use your password. The second rule of passwords is to CHANGE THEM. If you are still using the default password that came with your NPCUID, you need to change it. To do so, log in to my.newpaltz.edu and click on the link that says "Change my NPCUID password" and follow the instructions. The third rule of passwords is to use a good password.

How do we define a good password? A good password is NOT a real word that can be found in the dictionary. The first thing that hackers do to try to break into a computer system is to run a program that tries every word in the dictionary as a password. A good password for your NPCUID is one that:

• Is not in the dictionary and is not a common name (especially not YOUR name)
• Contains both letters and numbers
• Has at LEAST six characters
• Is not obvious. For example, don’t use your birthday, your name, your favorite band or anything else that can be guessed.
• It is also good to have both uppercase and lowercase letters.