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Improving Online Account Management

Overview

The Division of Information Technology has been working to improve the way that your online accounts are created, assigned permissions, and managed. The initial rollout of these changes went into effect on January 29, 2018.

The improvements only require small modifications to the way you access your online accounts at Virginia Tech.

Here is a summary of what is changing for all users:

  1. G Suite for Education (Gmail and other Google web applications) moved under the Login service, enabling access with your VT Username (PID) and password, and 2-Factor Authentication protection.
  2. When your passwords expire (which happens on a yearly basis), users now have the ability to set their VT Username (PID) password and Hokies (PID@vt.edu) passwords to the same password, or to make them different.
  3. Existing network passwords (for eduroam WiFi) continue to work until the user generates a new password. When a new password is needed, it will be automatically generated and accessible in Account Manager (https://accounts.it.vt.edu/myaccounts/network/show_password).
  4. Password rules have shifted to a new model that encourages longer PASSPHRASES, ideally 20 characters or longer.

In order to improve security for new users (new students, faculty, and staff), there is now an additional procedural change that simplifies the onboarding experience:

  1. VT Usernames (used to access PID applications, Hokies, and eduroam Network accounts) now have a new maximum of 16 characters (the old ones were capped at 8 characters). Existing users are not be affected by this change and are not eligible.
  2. VT Username (PID), Hokies, Google and Network Accounts (eduroam WiFi) are now created simultaneously as part of the onboarding process.
  3. Newly created VT Username (PID) and Hokies (PID + @vt.edu) passwords are now initially set the same. After onboarding, users now have the ability to make the VT Username password and Hokies password different, or to keep them the same.
  4. New network passwords (for access to eduroam WiFi) are automatically generated and accessible in Account Manager (https://accounts.it.vt.edu/).