NetID Password Requires 12 Characters Starting 11/18

Starting November 18, 2021 any new NetID password will need to be a minimum of twelve characters long. Your current password will work until you change it, at which point the new requirement will take effect.

The University of Illinois places great emphasis on the digital security of everyone at the University. Strong passwords are an essential piece of ensuring that security. To assist in ensuring that security, a new password requirement will go into effect on November 18.

Your NetID and password enable authentication to major University and department resources and tools. Depending upon your role as a student, faculty, researcher, or staff, these are examples of tools you can access using your NetID and password:

  • University email
  • IllinoisNet
  • Online courses (Compass 2g, Canvas at Illinois, Moodle, etc.)
  • Virtual Private Network
  • U of I Box

To review all NetID password requirements visit the Requirements and Acceptable Passwords KnowledgeBase article.

According to Hive Systems, a cybersecurity company, cracking 8-character passwords including uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers, only takes approximately one hour. If you include special characters in your password, that extends the time to eight hours.

By changing the password requirement to 12 characters, using uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters, it would take 34,000 years to crack a password.

chart identifying the time it takes to crack a password based upon the number of type of characters included