Passwords are the keys you use to access personal information that youve stored on your computer and in your online accounts. If criminals or other malicious users steal this information, they can use your name to open new credit card accounts, apply for a mortgage, or pose as you in online transactions. In many cases, you might not notice these types of attacks until its too late. Easily guessed passwords are one of the most common methods used by cyber criminals to compromise accounts.

In order to further protect your Valley Internet account against increased incidents of identity theft, spammers, and website hackers, your internet password must meet the following criteria:

• Minimum of 8 characters required
• Password may not be the same as the username
• Alphanumeric required (combination of letters & numbers)
• May include upper and/or lower case characters – a mix of both is a good security measure
• Excluded characters are single quote , double quote , asterisk *, and sign &, dollar sign $, at sign @, slashes / , dashes -, brackets { } [ ], and spaces
• Please avoid using common words that can be found in the dictionary and common strings of numbers such as 123456 or letters such as abcdefg