Security upgrades include password changes on FlashLine

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Sidney Keith

Students, faculty and staff will be required to change their FlashLine password this spring.

Users will need to change their password according to a schedule that is not yet released, said Paul Albert, executive director of Information Services.

The password changes come as part of the Identity Management Initiative, a project to upgrade the way Kent State manages users on the network.

“One of the requirements, since it’s replacing the old password system, is going to be that everybody is going to have to select a new password,” Albert said.

The new passwords will have different requirements like at least one capital letter, at least one number and at least eight characters long, he said.

The security questions that users answer when they forget their password will also be changed, he added. With all the information students post online, they should be careful to make their question something that they haven’t made public.

“With the advent of Facebook and everybody sharing their personal information, it became fairly easy to guess,” he said.

Chris Hallahan, marketing coordinator for Information Services, said the questions and answers are more concrete, and they won’t be as easy to figure out as they are now.

Users will also be required to provide an e-mail address other than the one given by the university.

“This is for use if you don’t remember the password and you don’t remember the questions, then you can get a one time token sent to your alternate e-mail address so you can get in,” Albert said.

Adam Hafer, senior nursing major, said he doesn’t think the required change of password will make his account more secure because his password is already really long.

But Hallahan said these measures are sure to increase security.

“The uppercase letter in the password makes it more secure because it increases the number of possible combinations for a certain password,” Hallahan said.

Albert adds that even though the capital letter in your password may be annoying, it adds an entirely new level of security.

Information Services is unsure of when users need to complete this upgrade by, Albert said.

“Whether we complete this spring, or some of it gets delayed to the fall, I’m not really certain,” he said. “It depends on when somebody puts a final blessing on the testing and says move forward.”

If users need help completing this process, they can call or visit the Kent State Helpdesk, Hallahan said. More information can be found at www.security.kent.edu.

Contact Sidney Keith at [email protected].