Password expiry policy

[digone52]

Hi folks.

 

We do not currently have a password change policy.

 

We are thinking about having a password expiry policy to force members of staff to change their passwords regularly.

 

If we do this, I'm considering what will happen if the password expires during a holiday.

 

We have an Exchange OWA which can be configured to allow staff to change their domain passwords when away, which will sort out email issues with the password expiry (currently this is disallowed).

 

However, we have about 150 laptops, all with the staff logging in at home with domain credentials.

 

If a member of staff is away from the school (summer hols for example), and their password is set to expire, what happens with the logon to the laptop?

 

If the member of staff cannot login at that point, then how do other schools handle this?

 

Thanks.

[fairm010]

When we used password expiration (we don't any more, as I was nearly killed for it! We now use complexity instead.) the off site domain laptop worked with their old password until it was brought back on site.

[Gibson335]

We have a 60 day expiry set. And yes, it can expire when they are away. All they need to do is change it before the holiday - simple. They forget, of course, but we send out reminders.

[digone52]

Hi. Thanks for the info. What is the impact if they do forget to change the password before the holiday. Is it just email access stops?

[truebluesteve]

We have had a password change policy for a few years now and initially it did sometimes change through the holidays - which stopped them getting email (Exchange 2007 doesn't support password changes). Since then I have done it manually and sent our several reminders before hand.

 

If they forget to change it then we can override it of course and force them to change it after the holiday. As for laptops - they will still work until they connect it to the network next, when they will prompted to change it.