Security Manager Administrative Settings

The Minutes of Inactivity spin box enables you to set the amount of time (in minutes) that should pass before a user whose account is idle is automatically logged off.  This spin box can be set from 0 (no automatic logoff) to 720 minutes (6 hours).

To disable this feature, the No Automatic Logoff option should be checked. This is much more intuitive than setting the minutes of activity to 0.

User accounts can either use this time as the default, or they can be given their own automatic log off time.

The 4 spin boxes within this section are used to define the required strength of passwords. Password strength is a measure of how difficult it is to guess the word.  In general, passwords that can be found in a dictionary are easily guessed by a determined hacker. Words that include a mix of letters, numbers and symbols are more difficult.

The Minimum Length spin box enables you to set the minimum length for passwords from 0 characters (no minimum restriction on length) to 255 characters.  You can set this value directly, or you can ignore it and set the following 3 spin boxes. The minimum password length will always be at least the sum of the other 3 minimum values.

If anyone attempts to set a password shorter than this length, a warning dialog will be displayed.

The Minimum Alphabetic Characters  spin box is used to set how many letters must be included in the password.

The Minimum Numeric Characters spin box can be set to a number greater than 0 if you want to require passwords to contain numbers.

The Minimum Special Characters spin box can be set to a value greater than 0 if you want  to require passwords that contain symbols such as @#$%, etc.

If an attempt is made to set a password that does not have the required number of any type of character, a warning dialog will be displayed. This will also tell the user how many of each required type of character must be used.

Passwords can be set to expire after a set number of days have passed.  When enabled and set to a value greater than 0, anyone attempting to log in after their password has expired will be forced to create a new password.  Until they do so, they will not be able to log into the system.

The new password dialog will prompt for the user’s existing password in order to verify their identity and will require that they enter the new password twice to ensure that they do not inadvertently misspell the word.

Password expiration times are measured in full calendar days. Days are measured on a user-by-user from the moment when the user’s password was last changed.

This feature cannot be enabled unless Password Expiration is also enabled.   When enabled and set to a value larger than 0 days, it will cause a warning to appear dialog to appear on a user’s screen each time they log in during the warning period.

By default, the System Privilege Suppression list displays all of the 37 possible system privileges.

Note: The Suppress and Reveal buttons (described below) affect the system privileges displayed in this list.

The Suppress button enables you to suppress a system privilege selected in the System Privilege Suppression list. Suppressed privileges are hidden from view in other dialogs, such as the Add Account, Copy Account, Modify Account and My Privileges dialogs.

By default, no system privileges are suppressed in a new application (i.e. all 37 system privileges are in a revealed state.)

Note: You can only suppress privileges when they are in a revealed state (i.e. the Suppress button is enabled when a revealed privilege is selected in the System Privilege Suppression list).

 Instructions on suppressing system privileges can be found in Suppress or Reveal System Privileges.

The Reveal button enables you to reveal a system privilege that has been suppressed. Revealed privileges are displayed in other dialogs, such as the Add Account, Copy Account, Modify Account, and My Privileges dialogs.

By default, all 37 system privileges are revealed in a new application; no privileges are in a suppressed state.

Note: You can only reveal privileges when they are in a suppressed state (i.e. the Reveal button is enabled when a suppressed privilege is selected in the System Privilege Suppression list).

Instructions on revealing system privileges can be found in Modify Application Privileges Using the Administrative Settings Dialog.

The Application-Specific privileges list displays any application-specific privileges that you have configured for this application.

Note: The Add and Modify buttons that appear beneath the Application-specific Privileges list enable you to add application-specific privileges to this list and modify existing application privileges in this list.

The Add button enables you to add application privileges for this application.

Note: When clicked, the Add button opens the Add Privilege dialog that allows you to enter a name for the new application-specific privilege. The new privilege will then appear in the Application-Specific Privileges list.

Instructions on adding new application privileges can be found in Add Application Privileges Using the Administrative Settings Dialog.

The Modify button enables you to modify an existing application privileges selected from the Application-Specific Privileges list.

Note: When clicked, the Modify button opens the Modify Privilege dialog that allows you to change the name of the application privilege you've selected from the Application-Specific Privileges list.

 Instructions on modifying existing application privileges can be found in Modify Application Privileges Using the Administrative Settings Dialog.