One of the many experiences that all Keene State College faculty, staff and students share is being forced to change their KSC NetID password every six months.
Joey Sullivan / Equinox Staff
On Sunday, April 1, the Information Technology (IT) Group HelpDesk sent out an email reminding some KSC users that they have 14 days to change their NetID passwords in order to avoid their accounts from getting locked.
The body of the email gave a list of instructions on how to go about changing the NetID password, along with the reminder that the password is needed to “access technology resources at KSC, UNH, PSU, and/or GSC.”
The “NetID and Passwords” webpage on the IT Group’s website states, “The IT Group requires faculty/staff and students create a new, complex password every six months,” and lists their criteria for passwords, such as being between eight and 16 characters in length and only containing alphanumeric characters. The webpage also gives advice on how to create easy-to-remember complex passwords.
Junior secondary English education major Brandon Patten said he only changes his NetID password because the policy forces him to, but isn’t bothered by it. “Honestly, I think it’s fine what they’re doing. It could be a little bit annoying, but it only takes a few days to get used to the password. The only thing I find annoying is if you don’t change it in time, then you’re locked out of your account.”
Second-year business major Evan McGregor said he was impacted negatively by the policy in the past.
“Last year I got locked out. I went like a week without having access to my email and I didn’t know that I had to change it and that’s why, it’s one of those things you don’t need to do,” McGregor said.
McGregor isn’t sold on the necessity of a mandatory biannual password change either.
“I feel like my email would never be directly compromised. I feel like I can get the spam emails, but I never worry about my email getting exposed, absolutely.”
Second-year occupational safety and health major Hunter Richardson also said the policy is unnecessary. “Honestly, I see it as pretty much a waste of time. I don’t think it’s necessary to be changing passwords all the time like this.”
First-year sustainable product design and innovation major Mark Torselli said he would prefer if the policy was voluntary. “I’d rather them just let you change it if you want to change it and that’s it. If you feel like you have something you want to secure, you can change your password if you want to, but I’d rather they didn’t make you.”
McGregor also suggested a voluntary policy. Maybe just advise people to change it instead. You might have more people change their password if you don’t tell people to change it. It might be easier too,” McGregor said.
Despite multiple attempts over the past seven days to contact Laura Seraichick or Elisse Morrissette at IT, neither were available for comment. The Equinox did receive a response from Seraichick at press time indicating she couldn’t “accommodate a request on short notice.” Seraichick did say she would be willing to respond for next week’s edition.
Vincent Moore can be contacted at vmoore@kscequinox.com
