The HawkID
The HawkID is your personal identification used along with your HawkID
password to access most online services at the University of Iowa. It is usually
made up of some combination of your first, middle and last name. For example,
John F Doe might have the ID jfdoe.
Since you can access sensitive information with your HawkID, we have done our best to make your password as secure as possible. We have designed our systems to keep your password secret when you log on to these computing services on the campus network or over the Internet. In addition to these measures, there are some steps that you can take to make sure that your password is not stolen.
The University has some policies in place to help you pick a better password and to make sure that password won't be easily stolen:
- Your password needs to be changed at least once every 180 days. If you don't change your password, it will "expire" which means that you will not be able to use your account until you change your password.
- Your password has to be at least 6 characters. (For some people, such as those with administrative privileges on University workstations, a password of at least 15 characters is required.)
- You'll need a password that has both numbers and letters, at least two of each.
- When you change your password, you need to pick a completely different one. Old passwords, or passwords that contain parts of old passwords won't work.
Since your HawkID password is the same for all services that use the HawkID, when you change your password, it will be changed for all HawkID services. However, some applications or web browsers allow you to save your password through the application itself. It may be necessary to update these applications after changing your HawkID password. See the Changing your HawkID password tips page for information on changing your HawkID password in specific applications.
Changing your HawkID password tips
About Domains
In most cases, you will not need to provide your domain (Iowa) when logging on with your HawkID. For example, ICON, ISIS, and Employee Seelf-Services are all Iowa domain services that use your HawkID. However, some services require you to tell it which domain you are in. Some might ask that you pick your domain from a drop-down menu. Others will require that it be included with your HawkID when you log on. These sites require that you log on using a special combination of your HawkID and domain.
The ITS Help Desk software download center is an example of a site that requires a Domain\HawkID combination. If John Doe had the HawkID jfdoe, he would log into the software download center with the ID: iowa\jfdoe
This is shown in the example below:
You'll want to make sure you use a backslash, which is the slash that points from the upper-left to the bottom-right.
Departmental/Shared Account HawkIDs
Departmental/shared account HawkIDs provide a single ID for multiple people in a group to use shared services such as a departmental or student group email account, web site editing/publishing accounts, etc. Shared account Hawk IDs are “owned” by an individual. In many cases, that individual may share the ID and password with members of the group, so that group members can access the services.
When a shared account HawkID password is about to expire, the owner of the account ID will be notified of the need to change the password. It is then up to the owner of the shared account to change the password and communicate the password change to others who share the account.