March 19, 2008

Titan Password Rules to Change

On April 7, 2008, we will make several changes to the Titan password requirements. For new userids, the password will expire after 60 days (down from the current 180 days). On that same date, when a password expires, you will not be able to reset it to any of your previous 24 passwords (up from 10). Finally, starting April 7th you will not be able to change your password more than once per day.

The expiration interval for existing userids will gradually be reduced from 180 days to 60 days over a period of approximately 4 months. This measure prevents all existing passwords from expiring on the same date.

These changes are being made in accordance with recent changes to NIH’s Password Policy.

Summary of rules

In summary, your password:

•	must be 7 or 8 characters
•	must include at least one alphabetic character, at least one numeric character, and at least one of these special characters: #, @ or $.
•	expires every 60 days
•	must not match any of the last 24 passwords you have used
•	cannot be the same as your Titan USERid
•	cannot be changed more than once per day

Although the requirements for your Titan password and your NIH Login password are very similar, we strongly recommend that you do not make both passwords the same. This minimizes the chance that a compromised Windows password could be used to access Titan.

NIH employees can go to the Titan password reset website http://silk.nih.gov/passwordset if they forget their Titan password. Entry to this site requires you to input your NIH login password.

Need help or have questions?

If you need any assistance, or have additional questions, just submit a service request via the NIH Help Desk’s website (http://ithelpdesk.nih.gov) or give them a call at 301-496-HELP (301-496-4357), 866-319-4357 (toll free), or 301-496-8294 (TTY).