Eighty percent of MyID account holders now have a strong password.

Forty-five thousand of the 55,000 University students, faculty and staff who have a MyID account changed their password by the Jan. 31 midnight deadline.

“We were pleased with how the University responded,” Enterprise Information Technology Service (EITS) Communications Director Bert DeSimone said, adding the more MyID is used, the more important security is.

The 10,000 who have not changed their passwords will not have access to their e-mail accounts or other MyID services until they change their password on the My ID Web site, DeSimone said.

EITS officials initiated the policy change in connection with their ultimate goal of designing a MyID that’s easy to use across campus.

The password change also prompted users to set up secret questions and answers.

This was done, DeSimone said, to allow users to reset their own passwords without phoning EITS.

The secret questions also may be used in the future for gaining access to more sensitive information, like when dealing with students’ financial accounts.

EITS wants MyID to become an electronic “passport,” providing access to different department services across campus.

For example, EMMA, a University writing and editing application, is not MyID enabled, but it’s possible to make it so.

Parking Services recently adopted MyID as a method for providing online account information.

“They saw the advantage of using MyID,” DeSimone said.

“We see (using it) as a trend that’s becoming more common.”