Creating strong online passwords and keeping them confidential are two of the best ways to protect Postal Service and personal information from cyber intrusions and hacking.
As part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, the CyberSafe at USPS team offers these tips:
- Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters to create strong passwords that are difficult to guess.
- Passwords, except those for mobile devices, must have at least 15 characters.
- Passwords must not contain any part of the user’s name. Also, don’t use your ACE logon ID as part of your password.
- Think of a favorite phrase and use it as a password, substituting some letters with other kinds of characters. For example, “the grass is green” becomes Th3gr@ss!gr33n.
- Once you create a password, never share it with anyone.
- If you write down a password, store it under your personal control. Don’t store it in application codes, files or tables.
- Change your password every 90 days.
To report suspicious activity, email the Computer Incident Response Team at cybersafe@usps.gov or call 866-USPS-CIRT (866-877-7247).
More information is available on the CyberSafe at USPS sites on Blue or LiteBlue.