New rules to make your university password even stronger

What's changed

All University passwords now need to be at least 14 letters long. The good news is they no longer need to include capital letters, numbers or special characters to make them more complex. 

To make it easier to remember your password, IT Services recommend using three random words together, e.g. 'coffeetrainfish'. Be sure to choose words that are memorable, but avoid any that might be easy to guess, such as 'onetwothree' or words related to you personally, like the names of pets. You’re also not supposed to use ’Birmingham’ in your student password.

Keeping you safe from cyber-criminals is a top priority

The change to our password policy is based on best practice advice from the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Centre who recommend longer passwords rather than complex ones. Weak passwords can be cracked in seconds so the longer and more unusual your password is, the harder it is for a cyber-criminal to crack.

You can find more advice and tips about staying safe online on the National Cyber Security Centre website.