Passwords and Accounts

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Password Changes, Activate your account and Add an Account

All UofL passwords - using your UofL userID - are changed or managed only in our Identity Management Portal and not within any one system. There is even a "forgot my password" option. Non-personal accounts (Sponsored Email, Service Email) are requested and managed through this portal - please see our Knowledge Base for more information on these services. For students, CardBox and VPN accounts, are requested through this portal (employees have these accounts automatically). 

Your UofL userID and password enable you to login to various computer systems, applications and online resources. Most importantly, your UofL account provides access to your university Office365 Outlook email and the ULink portal. A UofL account is provided, free of charge, for faculty, staff and current students. It is the individual's responsibility, as an owner of the account, to manage and protect your userID and login information. 

Password Requirements

All passwords must meet the University’s password policy (policy number ISO-008 v2.2). Regulations on all passwords follow the NIST requirements and best practices for enhanced security. 

Mandatory

  • Cannot Be Shorter Than 15 Characters
  • Requires a minimum of 2 letters
  • Cannot contain a word in the dictionary
  • Cannot contain an embedded word in the dictionary
  • Cannot have more than 2 repeating character pairs
  • Cannot use the first 4 characters of Full First Name
  • Cannot use the first 4 characters of Full Last Name
  • Cannot use the first 4 characters of Person Maiden Name
  • Cannot use the first 4 characters of Preferred First Name
  • Cannot use Identity User ID

Conditional (4 out of 4 rules must be satisfied) 

  • Should have a minimum of 1 upper case characters
  • Should have a minimum of 1 lower case characters
  • Requires a minimum of 1 numbers
  • Requires a minimum of 1 special characters

We recommend using Leetspeak where standard letters are often replaced by numerals or special characters that resemble the letters in appearance. Using easily memorized phrases can fulfill the password policy and requirements with a combination of replacing letters with numbers or symbols. Example (do not use this): Un1v3rs1ty0fL0u15v1]]e