Passwords

Owned by Marc Miller
Last updated: Feb 09, 2024
2 min read

What do I do if I forget my password?

To reset your password, please visit the College of Engineering forgot password page.

You'll be able to reset your password by following the instructions there.

If this doesn't work, please contact help@engineering.ucsb.edu and arrange a time to meet with an Administrator in Harold Frank Hall to get your password sorted out.

Please bring a picture ID. 

How do I change my password?

If you know your password and you just want to change it to something else, please visit the account maintenance page here: https://accounts.engr.ucsb.edu/maintain/ or  https://eci.ucsb.edu/account-creation-links then "maintain your account".

To change your password, go to  and click on the Change Password link.

Note

The password change can take up to 30 minutes to go into effect for some login processes (Such as logging onto the windows computers)

How do I choose a good password?

Choose a password that is at least ten characters in length.

The best passwords include a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters.

Here are some examples of good and bad passwords:

Bad

Good

donuts

d)nu7$!

1234five

sm00/eD

myname00

.44ma9nm

You can build your password around a phrase that is easy to remember.

For example, say your favorite short story was Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville.

You could use this to build several potential passwords:

b4rt1eBe or bts-HMvl or Scri>3nr

Never tell anyone your password or use example passwords

Why should passwords be unique?

If a site is compromised and passwords are stolen, hackers will try your passwords against other sites.

Having a different password for each site will prevent this.

Malware that includes key loggers can only capture one password at a time. If you get a virus you won’t lose all of your passwords.

A common technique if you are using one phrase to generate multiple passwords is to include subtle clues for accounts that will not be obvious to other people.

Example Phrase: Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville.

Bad: Password generated using Bartleby = Barq = too obvious

Good: Password generated using Bartleby = first word of phrase goes to first  account in your mental list of accounts = less obvious.

No one has to know if you arrange your mental lists of accounts forward or reverse alphabetically, by location, by use, or some other random criteria.

Additional Resources

https://www.it.ucsb.edu/general-security-resources/password-management