General
Q. When do these changes go into effect?
A. The new policy changes will go into effect on June 6, 2022.
Q. Why are these changes being made?
A. After much evaluation of best cybersecurity practices in the healthcare industry, we have determined that these updates are necessary in order to mitigate the possibility of a cyberattack and keep our patients and team members protected.
Email retention and mailbox management
Q. What will happen to my emails on June 6?
A. Any current emails in Outlook older than 90 days will be removed, and emails older than 90 days will be automatically removed going forward.
Q. If I have emails in my Outlook archive, tasks, notes or calendar, will they be saved longer?
A. No. Emails older than 90 days will be deleted from Inbox, Sent Items, Outbox, Deleted Items, Junk Email, Tasks, Notes, Calendar and team member folders. You will need to save emails outside Outlook to preserve them for longer than 90 days.
Q. Can I save any of my emails?
A. Yes. If you have emails that need to be preserved, you should create one or more folders on your H: Drive and title them according to the emails they will contain (for example: Action Items, Project-specific emails, To-Dos, Management Processes, etc.). After creating these folders, you can open a window to your H: Drive, then open the specific folder you need, and click and drag the email from your Inbox to the H: Drive folder. See the provided tip sheet for more detailed step-by-step assistance.
Q. Will any other reminders be provided?
A. You will receive reminders of the email retention period change leading up to Monday, June 6.
Q. What is the Ballad Health GAL?
A. The Ballad Health Global Address List (GAL) is the source of all Ballad Health email accounts.
Email communication
Q. Can I use my Ballad Health email as a password recovery backup email for another account?
No. Your Ballad Health email should not be used for any personal form of communication, including recovery of personal accounts.
Q. How different do I need to make my Ballad Health password from personal accounts?
A. Your password or passphrase must be completely different from those of any other personal or professional non-Ballad Health accounts. Changing or adding numbers or symbols to the end (“Rosesarered1” to “Rosesarered2” or “Rosesarered11”) is not a sufficient difference, as these minor tweaks can easily be figured out by hackers.
Computer access codes
Q. How often will I need to change my password?
A. You will be required to change your Ballad Health network password every 180 days.
Q. How do I change my password? Will I be prompted?
You will be prompted to reset your password upon its 180-day expiration to re-access your account. You can also reset your password at any time (for example, if there is any concern that it may have been compromised) by using “Ctrl-Alt-Del” and selecting “Change Password” from the window that pops up.
Q. Are there any requirements for numbers, capital letters or symbols in my password?
A. Yes. According to Ballad Health policy, your password/passphrase must contain at least three of the following:
1. Upper case letter
2. Lower case letter
3. Number
4. Special character (!@#$%^*()) (Note that the ampersand “&” character is not usable for Ballad Health passwords or passphrases.)
Q. Can I use the same password for other work accounts, such as HealthStream?
A. Any applications that are connected to the Ballad Health Active Directory will automatically share a password. HealthStream is not connected to Ballad Health’s Active Directory, so you should use a completely different password for your HealthStream account
Q. How much do I need to alter my password when I update it?
A. When you update your password, it is not enough to add or change a few symbols at the end. You need to create a completely different password that a hacker could not guess by trying variations of the old password. Utilizing a passphrase such as “It rained pennies 2day” is a good way to keep your account secure. (Note that it is not enough to update a previous password to a similar passphrase by adding spaces.)