The Importance of Passwords

It is very important that you choose a password that is hard to guess and that you keep this password a secret. Your password is the key to your account, and anyone who knows it has complete access to all of your files.

Under absolutely no circumstances should it ever become necessary for you to tell anyone your password. No one, including the system administrators, will ever have a legitimate reason to ask for your password. Therefore, if someone does ask for your password, you should never give it to them. Further, you should report anyone trying to get this information to the CSL by sending email to lab@cs.wisc.edu. Nor is it ever necessary for you to know someone else's password. In fact, use of someone else's login and password may result in loss of computing privileges for both of you. If you are working on a project with a partner, then you can use to set group access rights to share files. For more information see section .

If you ever suspect that someone else has used or is using your account, you should notify the CSL (Computer Systems Lab) immediately. To notify the CSL, mail lab@cs.wisc.edu. This is very important because the intruder could use up your printer quota, send email as you, or steal your programs and turn them in with his or her name on them. If this happens and this is noticed, the instructor is likely to hold both of the involved parties accountable for the plagiarism, as it may not be clear who stole what from whom.