Tips and Tricks to Keep Your Data Safe

Protect Your Passwords
Never share your password! Sharing your password is like giving someone the keys to your house. A person who knows your password can represent themselves as you. South Texas College staff will never ask you for passwords of any kind in person, over the phone or via email.
Create a Strong Password
STC has an official password standard that is aimed at creating hard to guess passwords. The password must meet or exceed the minimum requirements below.
Passwords must:

  • Be at least 12 characters long
  • Contain seemingly random or uncommon information
  • Be easy to remember but hard to guess by others
  • Contain characters from at least three of the following four categories:
    1. Uppercase characters (A-Z)
    2. Lowercase characters (a-z)
    3. Numbers (0-9)
    4. Special characters (!,@,#,$,%,^,&,*)
 
Never leave your workstation unattended!
STC implements a 15 minute log-off rule that helps those who forget to log off of a publically accessible computers.