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The password for your PKI certificate should be kept secret. You should not
share your password with anyone.
The password used to protect a certificate is only known on your computer or
eToken (depending upon where your certificate is stored) and cannot be
recovered by your local computer support staff. Encrypting a file and then
finding out you are unable to decrypt it is a painful experience. It is
very important to create a password you will remember. Select your password
very carefully in advance of obtaining your key pair and
certificate.
A single-word password is not recommended, even if it is in a language other
than English, as it is very vulnerable to a dictionary attack (when a computer
runs through all the words in a dictionary until it finds your password).
It is highly recommended that you create a password that includes a
combination of upper- and lower-case alphabetic letters and numbers.
However, it must be easy enough for you to remember. So give it some thought
before deciding on a password.
Some password do's and don'ts:
- Don't use your name, address, or any similar personal information
for your password.
- Don't use any single word or pair of words.
- Don't use a short password. Eight characters is the recommended
length.
- Do use a mixture of lower- and upper-case letters and digits:
"m1Xed2kZ''.
- Don't use an easy-to-guess sequence like "qwerty'' or "345678''.
- Do use mnemonics to help you remember your password: "mpiNfy'' - my
password is not for you.
- Do change your password regularly.
- Don't use any of the passwords listed here.
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