About staff accounts

All University of Portsmouth staff receive a computer account that grants access to our computer facilities. If you have not received your staff account details, please contact the admin team in your area.
 

Getting to know your account

  • Staff accounts are requested by a nominated person in each department/section
  • When you start your role at the University, your username and password will be given to you via a phone call to the service desk
  • When you log in, you will be prompted to change your password
  • Your staff account username will normally use up to the first 7 letters of your surname and your first initial

Note: Sometimes when a username is already taken it will have a number. e.g. BloggsJ or SmithA1.

  • You will use this username and password to sign in to the majority of University services
  • Some services, such as Google Mail and Microsoft 365, will use your University email address and password to login
  • Employee self-service (ESS) access will be granted by HR once your contract details have been added to the HR system (Trent)

 

Advice on choosing a password

Passwords are the lock on the door to your data and are the first point of attack for anyone trying to steal that data. The University guidelines state a password should be made up from a mixture of :

  • English uppercase characters (A–Z)
  • English lowercase characters (a–z)
  • Numbers (0–9)
  • Non-alphanumeric characters (e.g. !, $, #)

Passwords should not be only a single dictionary or slang word nor should they be personal information such as names, pet names, maiden names, birthdays, car registration and similar personal data. Also do not reference hobbies such as football teams, actors, band names and the like.

Create and use ‘strong’ passwords - which are easy to remember and difficult to guess. Below are three strategies

Use a passphrase
A longer version of a password typically composed of multiple words: 

  1. Pick three short unrelated words: e.g. tree, witch, rock
  2. Capitalise the first letter of each word: Tree, Witch, Rock
  3. Separate each word using a punctuation symbol: Tree?Witch?Rock
  4. Add a number : Tree?Witch?R0ck

Use word association
e.g. Amazon - b00ks_&_DVD5 or B00K5//on=line

Use a song or poem
Mary had a little lamb, it’s fleece was white as snow.
This becomes: MHALLIFWWAS or mhall-IFWWA5

  • Never share your password with anybody. No reputable service representative will ask you for your password. This kind of attack is known as phishing, someone will pretend to be from your bank or payroll office or Service Desk and ask for the password. This will never be required by a legitimate organisation.
  • All modern mobile devices will allow you to protect your data with a secure pin or password. We encourage everyone to use this feature.
  • Use different passwords for different systems
  • If you have been given administrator access to a system, only use this log in when you are required to perform a task which requires your access privileges to be raised.

Change and recover your password

You can change or recover your password on the following page.

Password Change

Need Help?

Contact the Service Desk: