The Office of Information Technology adopted a policy in 2005 requiring all UT computer users to change their passwords every 180 days. The policy also required that passwords be at least eight characters long and contain three of four characteristics: one numeric character, one uppercase character, one lowercase character, and one special character (such as ! or $). The frequency of required password changes was later tied to the type of information to which the user had access, with access to more sensitive information requiring more frequent password changes.