A bad password is any English word, your relatives' or pets' names, anything that is short - 5 characters or less, or something so complicated that you have to write it down.  A good password is at least 7 characters long, and uses some combination of upper/lower case letters, numbers, or punctuation.  Two English words stuck together with one piece of punctuation, like "red,frog" (but now don't use that one!).

You should change your initial Stargate password ASAP.  Don't give your password to anyone!  If an IS tech needs your password to help you, change it right afterwards.  Ideally, you would change your password every few months, but we don't enforce it.

Some people, when forced to change their password periodically, rotate through several passwords in a "theme", like trees: walnut, hickory, sequoia.

The idea of a "valet" password makes some sense - a second password for use with Internet services, and you change it frequently.

You bet.  You have the same security concerns that IS does with the campus firewall.  Macintosh is generally safe.  Some Windows software packages to look at include Roadrunner, McAfee Personal Firewall, www.securityauditor.com, Zone Alert, and Black Ice.  For Unix security advice, mail postmaster.

Just about everything - more later...

theft of identity

Don't join mailing lists or subscribe to web page "guest books" and such.

Just as some women keep their first name out of the phone book (Smith J), if you have a non-university mailbox you might consider that, or a mail address comprised of something other than your name, like "bikeace".

There are ISPs and software products that attempt to protect kids from the seedy side of the web - but if they're determined, kids can still get into something they shouldn't.  Monitoring their use is always a good idea.  Web access via the university's computer and network resources is NOT filtered.  For more information try these sites:

Protecting Children in Cyberspace
Cyberangels
SafeSurf
Yahoo: Child Safety on the Internet

It seems the medical industry would benefit greatly from digital signatures - clinics are being squeezed out of their offices by files full of paper.  The technology is here, but no government has yet made electronic signatures as valid as paper signatures.  To find out more try these links:

Software Industry Issues
Perkins Coie
Digital Signatures Illustrated