Changing / forgotten your school password

Change your password on a school device:

Please follow the below video on how to change your password on a school device.

Please read below the GDST password policy, which gives advice on choosing a secure and memorable password.

Overview

In common with most organisations the GDST relies on the use of passwords to enable users to access their IT systems.

This Password Policy follows recommendations provided in the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in their 2015 publication Password Guidance – Simplifying Your Approach

Password Guidance for Users

Passwords protect not only GDST systems, but the sensitive personal data of staff and pupils. It is therefore essential that some basic password rules are followed;

• Never use the same passwords for GDST systems that you use at home

• Never share or allow somebody else to use your password

We recognise that the abundance of sites and services that require staff to use passwords and repeatedly change them means staff have to follow almost impossible sets of rules and many people adopt workarounds or non-secure alternatives that increase risk, such as for example changing a single end character (from “1” to “2”)

The requirement to regularly change passwords will no longer be mandatory within the GDST, however if you suspect your account (or any account using the same password) has been compromised you must;

• Change your password immediately

• Contact a member of the ITS team (as it may be possible to disable or remotely wipe the sensitive personal data from your devices)

You may record and securely store your password separately from the device that you use it on.

Previous password guidance advocated using a mixture of capital letters, numbers and non-alphabetic symbols in the belief that this would be more difficult to guess, for example changing the password “spiderman” to SP1D3Rm@n. The substitution of letters with special characters is however a tactic well known to hackers and does little to deter an attack.

Your password should therefore comprise a passphrase or 4 random words, for example a passphrase might be (use of spaces increase security);

• I Love To Write Poetry

Alternatively choose four easy to remember words, but not words easily guessed from social media, so avoid family or pet names, holiday destinations, sports teams, occupations and hobbies (you may like to create a picture in your mind);

• MoonSaddleHorseRain

Password rules for some third party applications may be outside of the control of this local Policy. Where there applications apply different password rules they should be followed.