Passwords are the central piece of modern technology security. The traditional way to make passwords strong has been to make them more complex, but industry experts now recommend memorable passphrases instead. JerseyConnect is updating our email account password policy to reflect these changes.

Starting on 4/10/18 the password requirements for all email accounts will change as follows:

• The minimum length of 6 characters will be increased to 10 characters.
• The requirement to use different character types will be dropped.

Longer passwords are better because they are harder to crack. To make memorizing passwords easier, we encourage you to create phrases with whatever characters you desire. For example, the phrase “I have 2 children” is better than “setHuq*2aB” because it’s longer and easier to remember.

At first these updated requirements will only apply to new passwords and existing passwords will continue to work. A 30 day grace period will start on 5/1/18. During this grace period any user with and invalid password will be prompted to change their password the next time they access webmail. Also during the grace period regular reminder notices will be sent to any account not yet in compliance.

After 5/31/18 non-compliant accounts will be prevented from sending messages until their password is updated. Non-compliant accounts will still be able to check their email and receive new messages.