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Passwords
Your password is the primary defence against unauthorized access to both your private information and that of the university.
To support a more secure Laurier, ICT has enabled a new self-service password reset process for students, faculty, and staff. We are making it easier than ever for you to recover your password if you ever forget it.
You can now reset, unlock or change your password without contacting us by using the Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) tool. It can be done from any device, at any time, and from any location.
Reset your password with SSPR
There are two ways to reset your password:
Option 1:
- Go to https://passwordreset.microsoftonline.com/
- Enter your @mylaurier.ca email address.
- Enter the character verification.
- Use your MFA method of choice to authenticate, then change your password.
Option 2:
- Launch any Laurier portal (e.g., Outlook, MyLearningSpace)
- Enter your @mylaurier.ca email address.
- Select “Forgot my password”.
- Enter in the character verification.
- Use your MFA method of choice to authenticate, then change your password.
Sign up for additional SSPR methods
In case you lose access to your primary MFA method, you can set up multiple ways to recover your password so you can easily reset it.
Go to https://mysignins.microsoft.com/security-info, select "add sign-in method" and choose a method from the dropdown menu.
- Authenticator App: using the authenticator app will allow you to reset your password with the one-time passcode generated by the Microsoft Authenticator app.
- SMS Text Messages: adding your phone number means you will receive a verification code in a text message to reset your password.
- Email: adding a personal email address as a recovery email means you will receive a verification code in your personal email to reset your password.
- Security Questions: add five security questions and answers allowing you to answer these questions when you need to reset your password.
SSPR Video Resources
Watch the How to Register for Self-Service Password Reset using SM video below:
Watch the How to Register for Self Service Password Reset with Two Step Verification video below:
Guidelines to Password Selection and Maintenance
Passwords prevent unauthorized people from accessing user accounts and the system in general. They should be easy to remember but hard to guess or crack.
Even if you feel that you do not have anything important on your account, you should be aware that the account that opens the door may not be of interest except as a point to launch an attack on the system in general.
Below are some guidelines to help you in selecting and maintaining your passwords.
Passwords should be hard to guess. This means that passwords or components of passwords should meet the following criteria:
- Don't use your login name in any form (as is, reversed, capitalized, doubled, etc.).
- Don't use names of persons, pets, places or things significant to you in any form.
- Don't use numbers significant to you or someone close to you (phone numbers, birth dates, license numbers, etc.).
- Don't use any name, number, place or other item associated with the university.
Passwords should be immune as possible to attack by password cracking programs. This means that passwords or components of passwords should meet the following criteria:
- Don't use a word contained in English or foreign language dictionaries, place names, and proper nouns.
- Don't use passwords of all the same letter.
- Don't use passwords based on simple keyboard patterns, such as "ghjkl;" or "qwerty."
- Don't use any of the above reversed or followed/prepended by a single digit.
To construct a better password we recommend the following guidelines. Remember that the password should be easy to remember.
- Use a password with unusual capitalization.
- Use a password with nonalphabetic characters, e.g. numbers or punctuation, if your system allows them.
- Choose a line from a book, poem or song or generate a sentence you will remember. Use the first letter of each word to generate the password. For example, "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree" could become "IXdKKaspdd."
- Concatenate words or parts of words. For example:
- dog + rain becomes "dog:rain" or better "doG:raiN"
- the + dog becomes "the1dog" or better "the1Dog="
- my + ninety + books becomes "my9tybooks" or better "mY9tyBooks"
- Embed or interleave two or more words. This technique is not for everyone. Embedding and interleaving comes easily to some people but the combinations are impossible to remember easily for others. For example:
- kitten + dog becomes "kitdogten" or better "kiTdogTen"
- cat + dog becomes "cdaotg" or better "cd8ao;tg"
- Once selected, your password should not be recorded anywhere either on paper or in a computer file.
- Do not share your password with anyone. Anyone who needs access to the system will be given their own account.
- Change your password regularly. Users are required to change their passwords every 90 days.
- If you believe that your password has been compromised and that your account, on any system, is being used by some other individual, contact the ICT Service Desk at 226-243-6393 or via email at support@mylaurier.ca.
These guidelines are intended for your protection by making both your account and the university computer systems more secure.